UPDATE: New Hope for Gay Foreign Spouses
In San Francisco, Doug Gentry & Alex Benshimol a
married gay binational couple appeared before
Immigration Judge Marilyn Teeter for a deportation
hearing & were permitted to remain in the country
despite the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the
law that prohibits the recognition of same-gender
marriages by the federal government. This is the
latest in a series of recent court rulings that
have demonstrated the inequality that DOMA forces
gay couples to live under. Specifically, the judge laid
out two options. She gave the government 60 days to
decide whether it will drop the deportation proceedings
against Alex a Venezuelan citizen altogether. If the
government elects not to drop proceedings, the same
judge will revisit the case again in September 2013,
ensuring that Doug & Alex are protected from
deportation for at least two more years allowing
them to return to building a life together with their
family, including Alex's two step-children.
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Today's hearing was one more step in the march toward full federal equality for LGBT Americans and those they love. Doug and Alex's courage to stand up for their family and the tens of thousands of other families facing deportation from this country is nothing short of inspirational. We will continue to work on cases like these that highlight the lived discrimination that LGBT folks in this country face, and will not stop until we can rest our heads at night knowing that we are fully equal under the law.
ReplyDeleteRobin McGehee, Executive Director of GetEQUAL