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Members of SONG, Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement, The Queer Network, and National Day Laborers Organizing Network. (Photo Courtesy The Queer Network)
Dear SONG members and supporters:

This work is hard. Even though we know our members and our people are the reason for the work and the solution to our problems, on a hard day the best of us can be discouraged. Not today. Today we get to tell you some good news. Most of you know that a few days ago we held a direct action with SONG family and our sister organization, Familia:  Trans Queer Liberation Movement, to demand that the  7 Congressional Equality Caucus Co-Chairs make a statement to President Obama regarding the needs of LGBTQ undocumented immigrants inside his upcoming Executive Order. We told them in our letter (http://southernersonnewground.org/equalitycaucusletter) signed by 23 national LGBTQ groups, that we needed him to provide relief from fear and pain for the largest number possible of the 11 million undocumented people in this country–biological parents of children is not enough–our families and lives are not all the same and all undocumented people need relief. We told them that ICE and police collaborations criminalize our people and open them up to discriminatory practice and double harm. We told them that we cannot wait one more day, while our brothers and sisters are being raped in detention centers, and isolated in solitary confinement, for President Obama to free them from these conditions. Many of our people survive these horrific conditions only to be deported anyway. This afternoon at 3pm, we are going back to the Equality Caucus office to receive the statement that the Equality Caucus Co-Chairs have written at our request.

We know that the direct action of individual SONG members with Familia members was the choice of the individuals who planned it alone. However, your support of our demands (or support of the action itself) meant so much to us. First of all, we heard your individual and collective voices loud and clear: our groups are not alone as LGBTQ groups who care deeply about the critical needs of LGBTQ undocumented people. Y’all also see the bleeding point for our communities: you see the suffering and also the opportunity to fight back–whether you are directly affected or in solidarity with these communities. We are sure without a doubt that your calls on such short notice, sent one message to the Equality Caucus Director and Co-Chairs: we are not sitting here alone, and there are others not afraid to ask the Equality Caucus to do the right thing by LGBTQ undocumented people–not at the convenient time, but now–as our people just cannot wait.
We know for sure that you see what we see–that the criminalization of our communities–poor, LGBTQ, of Color–is literally killing us or robbing us of our joy–and we know you are willing to act from that knowledge, just as we are. We look forward to acting on behalf of that truth much more with you. We look forward to continuing to listen to what you need from us. We hope that you are as proud to be a SONG member today, as we are proud to coordinate your incredible, genuine and hard-working efforts. As proud as we are to support such a trust-worthy and incredible staff. After all, we stand by the belief that this is what the heart of the LGBTQ movement should be about: acting out of love for our people, and being willing to do whatever we can to protect and care for each other–seeing our people’s lives as precious and worth fighting for, even when and if others do not. 
We are proud to work collectively for Queer and Trans Liberation in our lifetime–day by day, action by action, win by win. Our people are worth the risk.
In appreciation,
Paulina Helm-Hernandez and Caitlin Breedlove, SONG Co-Directors