Madison Reed

I'm an American entrepreneur-owner of the New Earth Resource Company wellness store, and blog, LotusOpening.

Church-inspired anti-gay hatred unlawfully enacted into layer upon layer of U.S. law, from the federal to the state level, has forced me to live years of hellish separation from my beloved European partner. U.S. Congress denies gay Americans the same bundle of rights and benefits routinely given to straight Americans; i.e., immigration benefits for their foreign partners, an extraordinary and vital benefit considered by our law-makers as fundamental to our "importance of family" based immigration system. Yet my European partner and I are denied this, so we have remained for years, separated by country. There are more than 1,100 federally conveyed benefits denied to gay Americans.

This terrible struggle for equality and happiness; to live my life with the love of my heart as I choose, has dominated my life for several years.