Photo courtesy of UApresents. Performance artist Tim Miller explores sexuality, immigration and gay marriage rights in his one-man show "Glory Box." Performances are tonight and tomorrow night in Nations Hall at Muse, 516 N. Fifth Ave.

It's Gay Awareness Week on campus, and performance artist Tim Miller plans to do just that - raise some awareness.

Miller's one-man show, "Glory Box," addresses discrimination facing gay and lesbian couples regarding U.S. immigration laws. He and his Australian partner of eight years, Alistair, have felt the impact of living in a country that deprives gay and lesbian couples of the "1,049 (federal) 'special heterosexual rights' afforded all straight, married folks," Miller said in an e-mail interview.

"For binational gay couples like us, the biggie of the rights that gay people are uniformly denied are the immigration rights that all our straight pals get with their vast, buffet spread of heterosexual privilege that accompanies marriage," Miller said.

Law professor Andrew Silverman and other university representatives sat on a panel Sunday with Miller to discuss these pressing immigration issues as part of the "Sex, Race and Globalization" series. Silverman said Miller's show brings an important personal viewpoint to the debate that needs to be heard.

"There's no doubt that these issues become more real to people when a personal side is revealed," he said, "and I think what Tim Miller does is bring forth an important immigration issue in a very dramatic way and a very personal way."

Miller, who performed another show in Tucson two years ago, started writing "Glory Box" during a difficult time at the United States Consulate in Australia, where Alistair was refused his student visa.

"(That) put us in a huge crisis, kept us apart for months and ended up costing us thousands of dollars," Miller said. "I knew right then that I had to get my butt in gear and make a piece that would let people know about the unbelievable injustice that lesbian and gay bi-national couples face in our country."

Miller points out that the United States is one of the few Western industrialized nations that denies immigration rights to gay and lesbian couples. When Alistair's student visa expires at the end of the year - he recently completed his MFA program in creative writing at an American university - the couple will relocate to England, where Alistair holds dual citizenship.

"We are hoping we will get a few months reprieve through what's called OPT (Optional Practical Training) but otherwise, like every other gay American citizen with a foreign partner, we are screwed in the U.S.!" Miller said.

This anger stems from the United States' refusal to legally recognize the relationships of gay people, which leads to the subsequent denial of the same rights that married people have, Miller said.

"It is a huge, symbolic way our country slaps around its gay citizens," he said. "It sure feels this way when you are facing your lover being deported, or can't get into the hospital to see your partner because you're not considered family, or the immediate family takes away the house you left your partner because your will was not acknowledged since gay relationships have no standing in law.

"I can't understand why all Americans - straight and gay - aren't more pissed off about this," he added.

At the performances of "Glory Box," Miller does what he can to stir up a sense of injustice in the audience, and to help them change these discriminatory laws. After the show, audience members can sign a petition urging Congress to pass the Permanent Partners Immigration Reform Bill that, Miller and Silverman say, would grant gay and lesbian couples immigration rights, provided certain criteria are met.

Change will come too slowly to solve Miller and Alistair's immigration problems, but Miller said all these troubles have only strengthened the relationship.

"As hard as this situation is - and relationships are hard enough without the U.S. government trying to break you up - this experience has really reminded me of the power of love and commitment," he stated.

Miller said he hopes the United States will someday join the civilized world in recognizing gay relationships, but he will continue to work to make sure gays and lesbians are no longer treated like second-class citizens.

"I'm going to work my little performance-art booty off to raise awareness, money and trouble with 'Glory Box,'" he said. "I want the piece to conjure for the audience a vision of gay people's extraordinary potential for love."

Miller performs "Glory Box" tonight and tomorrow night at 8 in Nations Hall at Muse, 516 N. Fifth Ave. Tickets are $25, with student discounts available. For tickets call 621-3341.