74:"My agonizing, humiliating and tragic experience started when I got in their SUV. My partner ran to the car and saw me being handcuffed and she broke down to tears. They handcuffed me. I was taken like a criminal. I thought it was the lowest point of my life, but when they transferred me to a van and I saw two men in it and had bars in between us, it was something I cannot imagine that will happen to my life. I was taken like a criminal. I was praying so hard for me to wake up, but it was not a dream. I was actually there. My heart was beating so hard, my whole body was shaking and I felt so nauseated with what was happening to me."
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with her twin sons and her spouse, Jay
Mercado. During her teen years, her mother and sister were murdered by her cousin. She studied in the United States and moved to California in 1986, when she overstayed her tourist visa to be with Jay Mercado, an American citizen. Tan returned to the
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Philippines for a short time, but decided to return to
Mercado because the murderer of her mother and sister had been released from prison. Tan and Mercado met through their parents, who knew each other through
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agents for remaining illegally in the US, before being tagged with an electronic monitoring bracelet and released back to her home. Tan wrote a letter recounting her experience to
Senator
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in 1995. She was informed of the denial of her application 2009. She was arrested on
January 28, 2009, at 6:30 am by
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Tan gave birth to twins in 1996. In an effort to become legalize her status in the United States, Tan applied for
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who actively promotes gay and lesbian immigration rights in the United States.
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132:"Testimony of Shirley Tan, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary"
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47:. The couple is still living together today, and they entered into a
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is a
Philippine-American gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender
156:"Help us please - twin boys beg for mothers' rights"
30:Background and activism for immigration rights
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198:Filipino emigrants to the United States
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60:Immigration and Customs Enforcement
213:21st-century Filipino LGBTQ people
208:20th-century Filipino LGBTQ people
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16:Philippine-American LGBT activist
203:People from Pacifica, California
188:Filipino LGBTQ rights activists
51:under California law in 2004.
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102:. People Magazine. 2009-04-20
100:"A Gay Mom Faces Deportation"
158:. The Love Exiles Foundation
34:Shirley Tan was born in the
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218:Activists from California
193:Filipino women activists
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49:domestic partnership
45:Rotary International
40:Pacifica, California
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160:. Retrieved
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134:. 2009-06-03
104:. Retrieved
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36:Philippines
20:Shirley Tan
177:Categories
162:2009-12-09
138:2009-12-09
106:2009-12-09
79:References
68:California
24:activist
56:asylum
66:of
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