Mr. Sullivan, now 73 years old, also has a letter from the US immigration service…In 1975, Boulder County, Colo., clerk Clela Rorex issued the first same-sex marriage licenses in the United States. In this excerpt from the documentary "Limited Partnership," Rorex describes what led her to make the decision and reunites decades later with one of the couples, Richard Adams and Anthony Sullivan. The full documentary airs on PBS's "Independent Lens" on June 15, 2015. (Independent Television Service)
[...]
[One] license shows that Anthony Corbett Sullivan and Richard Frank Adams were married April 21, 1975, in Boulder, Colo., years before others thought two men should be allowed to wed and decades before a majority of Americans would say it was okay with them, too.
WaPo
... the official response from the U.S. government after Adams informed officials of his nuptials and asked that his new husband, an Australian citizen facing deportation, be extended a spouse’s visa.
Denied, the immigration service said, for the following reason:
“You have failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots.”
The denial sparked a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, and the eventual “exile” of the two men.[...]
The judge who wrote the final word on whether Sullivan and Adams could stay together in the United States or be forced to strike out in search of a country that would take them was Anthony M. Kennedy, then a circuit judge and now the Supreme Court’s pivotal justice on gay rights.
An interesting story – remarkable people. Read it here. ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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