Come out, come out, wherever you are.
This is the sentiment that attorney Richard Iandoli echoed in his presentation on past, present and future U.S. immigration policies towards LGBTQ+ migrants.
“Coming out has been the historic force that’s really changed things in this country and many other countries all over the world,” Iandoli said. “If we are gonna hold on to the victories that we’ve had, it’s really gonna come in large part because we all come out of the closet.”
The presentation and subsequent Q-&-A last Tuesday, Feb. 11, was the second in a series of three immigration workshops the Office of International Student Affairs (OISA) is hosting this semester in an effort to provide support and answers to an increasingly anxious international student body.
The talk highlighted past struggles and victories in LGBTQ+ and immigration rights, as well as current issues and predicted future challenges under President Donald Trump’s administration, which Iandoli, who has worked in LGBTQ+ immigration policy through his lawfirm Iandoli Desai & Cronin P.C. for over 50 years, said would be “quite substantial.”
In a community-wide email sent to the campus on Wednesday, President Jay Bernhardt acknowledged the community’s concerns, and wrote that the college has been closely monitoring the “impact of emerging executive orders, memos, and letters, and the pressures they bring to bear,” but retained its “enduring commitment to building and sustaining an inclusive and caring community.”
“We may be tested in the days ahead, but we will do everything in our power and authority to support our people, programs, and priorities,” Bernhardt wrote.
The recent threats Iandoli noted were the plethora of executive orders directed at LGBTQ+ people and immigrants, such as orders prohibiting recognition of trans and non-binary identities on passports and other documents, limiting birthright citizenship, banning diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in all federal agencies, as well as organized efforts to overturn marriage equality and anticipated threats by the newly appointed anti-LGBTQ+ attorney general Pam Bondi.
“One of the recommendations we’re making not just for trans people, but for immigrants generally, is to be very careful about traveling unless it’s really critical,” Iandoli said.
Along with the workshops, OISA has been keeping international students updated through email updates. In a message sent last week, the office recommended for international students to carry proof of lawful status on them at all times, including their passport, their most recent Form I-94 showing their arrival to the U.S. in F-1/J-1 status, and an F-1 or J-1 visa.
“The reminder… is not new,” Andrea Popa, the Director of International Students Affairs, wrote in a statement to The Beacon. “This is a timely reminder about which immigration documents reflect a student’s lawful status in the event of an interaction with U.S. law enforcement.”
Popa, who introduced Iandoli at the event, wrote that students have received the events with gratitude for the detailed information and perspective, and said that the importance of the workshops is “allowing Emerson students to hear from experienced immigration attorneys on broad immigration issues that are of interest to many in [the] community.”
At this time, Iandoli encouraged listeners to take actions that “support the members within [their] communities,” such as resisting the “bans on education” and the “horrendous attacks on transgender and non-binary people,” which he said that Emerson has already done a very good job at.
Iandoli emphasised that the struggle is not new, and connected the ways immigration law has been historically used against queer people. Some examples he shared were homosexuality being categorized as a crime “against nature” until 2003 and naturalization thus being denied to queer people for “bad moral character,” the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and LGBTQ+ people not being designated as a protected social group when seeking asylum until 1994, even though 60 countries currently criminalize homosexuality.
“It just reminds me of how history is cyclical,” said Cory Blackmar, the director of global partnerships and internationalization in the Office of Internationalization and Equity at Emerson after the talk. “It’s a little bit frustrating. We hope we learn from our past, and it seems like sometimes we never do. That’s why it’s so important we never forget it.”
The audience’s response to the presentation was positive. After the event ended many lingered to mingle and chat about what they had heard.
Crystal Gómez, the program manager of HIVE for the Social Justice Collaborative at Emerson, said she liked learning about how LGBTQ+ legislation, like the 2015 Supreme Court decision to legalize same sex marriage, impacted certain immigration laws, like naturalization.
“I appreciate [Iandoli] illuminating that the struggle is ongoing, but that hopelessness doesn’t have to be a part of the process,” she said.
In an interview with The Beacon, Iandoli said that what’s kept him hopeful all this time is doing little things, like coming up with mottos that inspire him. He said that his current motto, in reference to a quote from the “Star Trek” franchise, is “Resistance is not futile, we will not be assimilated.”
“It’s also important for queer people not to lose the fun part of who they are,” Iandoli continued. “There used to be fabulous dance bars in Boston. We used to dance our butts off. It was a great way to meet people, to hear good music, to get up and dance. In that way too, it was resisting.”
Then, he recalled a letter he once received from the president of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, his alma mater, that he still thinks about: “The arc of justice is sometimes very, very long.”
“I am not hopeless. People are getting ready for the fact that we’ll maintain some of our rights through good efforts and court cases,” Iandoli said. “There will be struggle again, but it doesn’t mean to be hopeless, it means to be courageous.”
