Current Affairs

Video: Married binational gay couple kept apart by DOMA urges US Supreme Court strike-down

Jun 14 2013
Written by Joseph McCormick

Illustrated rainbow pride flag on a pink background.

A viral video telling the story of a binational married gay couple urges the US Supreme Court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which has prevented them from being together permanently.

The video tells the story of David and Jason, who met in 2007, and married in 2012, but says that the couple have been continually separated by their inability to gain a green card for Jason, as US citizens cannot gain a green card for their foriegn-born same-sex spouse.

The moving video was posted by gaybinationals on YouTube to the DOMA Project page.

The US Supreme Court is by the end of June to issue a ruling on the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, which bans equal marriage in the state, and the DOMA which federally bans 1,100 equal benefits for same-sex married couples.

On the first day of hearings in March, the court heard arguments around Proposition 8, the state of California’s ban on equal marriage. Then the justices questioned the meaning of marriage, and challenged arguments for the ban.

On the second day of hearings, several of the Supreme Court Justices raised concerns around DOMA, and some took that as a sign that there may be a narrow majority who will strike it down.

There are a number of possible outcomes, which range from effectively allowing equal marriage across the US, to letting Proposition 8 and DOMA stand.

The Supreme Court does not announce its decision date ahead of time, so its ruling could come any time by the end of June. Rulings are traditionally made on Mondays, and the next possible decision announcement would be Monday 17 June.

As well as the cases in the Supreme Court, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy has again proposed an amendment to the broad US immigration bill, currently in the US Senate, which would include sponsorship for same-sex partners of US citizens. He withdrew a similar measure earlier in the committee stage due to lack of support.