Here are some frequently asked questions:

Highlights of Martha's advocacy are listed below. 

UNITING AMERICAN FAMILIES ACT - Access To Family-Based Immigration For Same-Sex Binational Couples

Founded and Chaired the Love Exiles Foundation, an international community of US Citizens whose activism resulted in a revolution in US immigration law for American citizens with same-sex partners. 

• Love Exiles chapters were established in the Netherlands, UK, Canada, Germany, and Australia, with members across the globe. 

• Members shared personal stories with elected leaders, building support for LGBTQ+ immigration rights through ongoing attention in international media (NY Times, San Jose Mercury, CNN).

• Organized “Love In Exile” events and spoke at conferences to draw attention to the exclusion of US citizens living abroad and their non-US partners from family reunification provisions of US immigration law. 

• Collaborated with other activist groups and NGOs, including Out4Immigration, Marriage Equality California, Immigration Equality, Human Rights Watch, the DOMA Project, and Marriage Equality USA, where she served as an Advisory Board member. 

• Spoke as a guest on the floor of the DNC 2007 LGBT Caucus and Women’s caucus meetings about the plight of same-sex binational couples, meeting with congressional staff who committed to organizing a congressional hearing on immigration for same-sex couples. The hearing was held in 2009. 

• Along with many other Americans with same-sex partners taking part in the DOMA Project (Stop the Deportations), Martha applied for a green card for her wife Lin in 2012. The application was rejected by the State Department with the rationale “petition denied because your spouse is a woman." They appealed the ruling. 

Democrats Abroad Involvement

• DA was one of the first US democratic bodies to go on the record in support of immigration rights for same-sex couples;

• Love Exiles board members drafted and submitted a resolution supporting the Uniting American Families Act. The resolution  passed at the 2006 Democrats Abroad Annual Meeting. 

• DA subsequently included the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) in congressional doorknocks. 

• Martha brought the “Love In Exile” workshop to local in-person Democrats Abroad events in Paris, Madrid, and Cologne and the the OutGames Human Rights Conference in Montreal. 

Advocacy work on behalf of DA

• 2009 -  Submitted written testimony on behalf of Democrats Abroad leadership to the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) 

• Attended the June 2009 Senate hearing on the Uniting American Families Act. Following the hearing, met with Senator Patrick Leahy (Chair of the Judiciary Committee) and staff of Senator Feinstein and Jeff Sessions with Shirley Tan (a witness who gave her testimony of being detained and nearly deported) and her partner and children. Shirley Tan’s deportation was put on hold indefinitely following media attention initiated by Love Exiles in the San Jose Mercury and intervention by Senator Feinstein’s and Representative Speier's offices. 

2013 WINDSOR RULING:  Immigration became available to same-sex couples and their families following the June 2013 Windsor decision, which ruled that section 2 of the Defense of Marriage Act violated the US Constitution. 

LGBTQ+ Advocacy and Activism

• With the US Consulate in Amsterdam, Martha organized workshops for US citizens and their same-sex partners on the green card process. The workshops called attention to the plight of love exiles within the US State Department. 

• Martha's work has been featured in interviews, books (People’s Victory: Love in a Time of Exile), Torn Apart, Amor and Exile by Nathaniel Hoffman and Nicole Salgado, reports presented to US Congress , Human Rights Watch report Family, Unvalued, “United by Love, Exiled by Law” in the book Urgency Required / Urgentie Geboden, and in the media (Fortune/CNN Money, New York Times, San Jose Mercury-News, CNN, San Francisco Chronicle, NOS, Radio 1, BNR Radio, Vrij Nederland, AT5, the Volkskrant, and the NRC. 

• Love Exiles was highlighted as an example of effective activism of Americans abroad in Migrants or Expatriates by A. Klekowski von Koppenfels and the case is taught by Professor Klekowski van Koppenfels in a graduate-level university course. 

BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP FOR CHILDREN BORN ABROAD TO US CITIZEN FAMILIES

• Advocated for granting birthright citizenship to children born abroad to Americans with same-sex partners (children conceived using Assisted reproductive technology (ART) were denied citizenship even though they were born to legally married parents). 

• Worked with Senator Tim Kaine to highlight the denial of citizenship to children of American citizens

• Collaborated with the senator’s staff and Immigration Equality to draft a letter submitted to Secretary of State Pompeo from the Senate Foreign Relationships Committee and covered to the media (CNN). 

• Worked with DA Chair Julia Bryan and the Biden campaign to secure a commitment to grant access to citizenship to children born abroad to US citizens with non-US same-sex spouses. 

**This policy change was made by the Biden administration State Department in 2021.** 

Martha has extensive professional management experience in various settings, and understands that managing and leading are different roles. Both are critical in an all-volunteer organization tasked with a mission such as ours.  

Management (getting the right things done)  

She believes that an effective Chair neither delegates everything nor does everthing themselves.  An effective Chair will manage a large and complex team of volunteers, making sure the organization does not lose focus while respecting areas of expertise and allowing volunteers to develop within the organization. The Chair must find a balance between trusting/delegating and providing boundaries/keeping the focus on the right tasks. Her experience includes the following:

• managing multiple teams and departments tasked with creating persuasive and effective communications – something that we do every day in DA.

• She headed one of the top technical communications departments in Silicon Valley, managing a department of 80 people at four geographic locations. The department won international awards for excellence in effectively communicating complex information and was recognized with the top international award for communication processes (Society for Technical Communication).

• Martha recruited and led a 15-person communications team at a global financial institution that developed and embedded multi-channel communication global IT applications. She is skilled at bringing all parties to the table to get a balanced outcome reflecting multiple interests.

• She also recruited C-suite executives to provide sponsorship, finances, and support to the employee LGBT+ network at a global financial institution, growing the network and establishing chapters on four continents. 

Leadership: (inspiring others in a group to accomplish a mission)

Leadership involves the ability to motivate and inspire others to join in on projects and work to achieve that organization’s mission. Collaboration, marshaling resources, and rewarding and appreciating the work of others is a complicated set of skills that is critical to lead DA, an all-volunteer organization. Martha has honed these skills over the years:

• As an entrepreneur and innovator, engaged people around the world to create community and share their stories in the media (Love Exiles Foundation; Democrats Abroad LGBT Immigration Task Force; Marriage Equality California).

• Board member and global chair of an LGBTQ+ network at a Dutch financial institution.

• Aligned diversity and inclusion goals and strategy with the sustainability direction, establishing sponsorship from the global management board, growing the number of countries opening supporting LGBTQ+ employees, and quadrupling the LGBTQ+ network budget. 

• Co-founded Women@Workplace Pride, supporting international companies and local/national government authorities and ministries to increase the visibility and representation of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women in key positions of influence. 

• Spoke on LGBTQ immigration from places as diverse as the University of Southern California and the steps of San Francisco City Hall https://youtu.be/qLo3cvgNMDQ?t=131

• Expert speaker on LGBT+ workplace issues at Shell, Elsevier, TEDxING , and the European Central Bank (Keynote Speaker, Diversity and Inclusion Conference, 2017)

Martha's leadership principles are:

• Listening deeply to all stakeholders in order to forge a common vision and foundation for effective collaboration

• Building commitment to action and results in fulfillment of DA's mission

• Encouraging entrepreneurial thinking in problem solving

• Celebrating results!