Contributor

Lavi Soloway

Immigration and LGBT rights attorney and advocate; founder, The DOMA Project

Lavi Soloway came to the United States from Canada in 1989 to study law. His personal and professional life soon led him to build a national grassroots movement at the intersection of two high-profile political issues: marriage equality for lesbian and gay couples and immigration reform. A partner in the New York/Los Angeles law firm of Masliah & Soloway, his work includes all matters of family and employment-based immigration, citizenship, representation of asylum applicants and defense of individuals threatened with deportation. As a prominent gay rights advocate, Lavi Soloway founded the national LGBT organization Immigration Equality in 1993. In 1999 he helped write the Uniting American Families Act, a bill that would provide immigration rights for the same-sex partners of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. The bill is still awaiting a vote by Congress. In 2010, with his law partner, Noemi Masliah, he launched the DOMA Project, a campaign to stop the deportations, separations and exile of binational lesbian and gay couples. Now an American citizen, Lavi Soloway lives in Los Angeles with his husband, Sebastian, and their daughter, Lily.

For more, visit www.domaproject.org, facebook.com/thedomaproject and twitter.com/gaybinationals.