One doesn't often have the opportunity to make a quick remark that might affect the course of U.S. policy. I got that chance in an unexpected conversation with Barack Obama in 2007.

Eric Manriquez, a U.S. citizen, has been legally married to Juan Rivera, an undocumented immigrant, for five years in California, yet Rivera can't apply for a green card through marriage as heterosexual spouses can, because the federal government doesn't recognize their union.

I'm British and have lived in the UK my whole life. I never expected to find myself with a partner from another country. Having to deal with the distance was hard enough, but what happens when one partner can't expect to be sponsored for citizenship in the other's country?

You decided to exclude the gays, the people who worry everyday that their partner will be deported, who watch their partners cry because they can't visit a sick father, who believe in the justice we seek for all immigrants because the suffering is identical and must end for us all.

Lesbian and gay Americans and permanent residents will still not be able to sponsor their loved ones for permanent residency. LGBT organizations and coalition partners will vigorously protest, but at the end of the day, we will still be left out in the cold.

There are serious, deleterious harms as a consequence of what some may view as coalition building between mainstream immigration reform advocacy groups and LGBT groups. The end result of pinkwashing immigration reform is threefold.

Lesbian and gay binational couples remain shut out of green cards and fiancé(e) visas. As a result, LGBT families are still torn apart, forced into exile or left fighting to remain together in this country. None of them feel that we have already won, and to say that is an insult to their struggle.

LGBT families are standing up and challenging everyone to see their humanity. By reaching out to our neighbors, families, co-workers, fellow congregants, employers and friends, and by living open and honest lives, we have changed the hearts and minds of more than 100 million Americans.

Long before immigration reform was the hot topic it is today, Judy Rickard and her wife, Karin Bogliolo, were in the trenches spreading the word about the harsh reality for same-sex binational couples trying to remain together in the U.S.

We've seen the repeal of DADT, Obama's "evolution" on marriage equality, and the emergence of two Supreme Court cases that will determine the next steps in the battle for marriage equality. But now isn't the time to just wait on our equality to come to us. Now is the time to seize it!

Homeland Security is avoiding the deportation of some same-sex partners. Still, 50 LGBT and immigration advocacy groups have asked President Obama to announce an official freeze on deportations of LGBT people until DOMA can be decided, but no action has been taken.

President Obama, you can ensure that Becky and Sanne's green card petition is not denied but put on hold until either the Supreme Court strikes down the Defense of Marriage Act or Congress passes an immigration reform bill that includes the gay partner provision you put forward.

The fact is simply that any remaining opposition to the inclusion of gay families in immigration reform is marginal, and it is not the official policy of the vast immigration coalition network that is now working tightly with the LGBT community.

A few days ago I spoke to a friend about the need for immigration reform in this country, reform that would honor and respect both this nation and those who seek citizenship here. My friend asked me why, as an advocate for LGBT equality, I care about immigration. This is my response.

It's that time of year again when journalists speculate about what might happen in the year ahead. Following last year's crystal-ball gazing, I present my forecasts for 2013. By my reckoning it's going to be another barnburner for the gay community.

For the same reasons that we demand that immigration reform include protections for same-sex binational couples, we join our colleagues in being equally adamant that the number of family sponsorship visas not be reduced, and that no categories of family sponsorship be eliminated.