Against Defense Of Marriage Act—

Newtown Couple

Joins Federal Suit

By John Voket

Five lesbian and gay couples, including a couple from Newtown, have filed suit in the Eastern District of New York, challenging Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which prevents lesbian and gay American citizens from sponsoring their spouses for green cards.

The lawsuit, filed on the couples’ behalf by Immigration Equality and the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, alleges that DOMA violates the couples’ constitutional right to equal protection.

Among those named in the suit are Newtowners Kelli Ryan and her spouse Lucy Truman, a native of the United Kingdom. The couple has been together for more than 11 years and entered into a civil union in July 2006.

According to Immigration & Equality spokesperson Steve Ralls, “Kelli and Lucy were married in March 2010 in Connecticut, and their petition for a green card was denied on March 27.” He said the local couple has “been very courageous to be a public face to this issue.”

Immigration Equality is a national organization fighting for equality under US immigration law for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and HIV-positive individuals.

“They filed this appeal with incredible support from Senator Richard Blumenthal, who asked administration not to deny their green card application and advocated aggressively to ensure their marriage was respected and their application was not denied,” Mr Ralls told The Bee after the suit was announced.

“This suit is the direct result of the [Obama] administration not taking the good advice of Senator Blumenthal and others. As the White House continues to refuse any action to discontinue these rejections, our participants had little choice but to take the course of filing,” Mr Ralls added. “Senator Blumenthal has a great ally to Lucy and Kelli, and all those involved in this action — he’s gone above and beyond the call.”

The lawsuit states that, “Solely because of DOMA and its unconstitutional discrimination against same-sex couples, these Plaintiffs are being denied the immigration rights afforded to other similarly situated binational couples.”

Were the Plaintiffs opposite-sex couples, the suit says, “the federal government would recognize the foreign spouse as an ‘immediate relative’ of a United States citizen, thereby allowing the American spouse to petition for an immigrant visa for the foreign spouse, and place [them] on the path to lawful permanent residence and citizenship.”

The other couples in the suit, who have been together for between 11 and 22 years, reside in Orient, N.Y.; Dummerston, Vt.; New York City; and Elmhurst, N.Y. The plaintiffs include a retired professor of English at a New York college, a home elder-care provider, a marketing director for a global nonprofit organization, and a retired school psychologist.

Kelli Ryan and Lucy Truman are both doctors of immunology.

“The families in today’s lawsuit meet every qualification for immigration benefits, with the sole exception that they happen to be lesbian or gay,” said Rachel B. Tiven, Esq, executive director of Immigration Equality in a release following the suit being filed. “Solely because of their sexual orientation, they have been singled out, under federal law, for discrimination and separation. That’s not only unconscionable; it is unconstitutional. We know DOMA cannot withstand careful review, and we know we will prevail on their behalf.”

Immigration Equality is widely recognized as the country’s premiere national organization providing legal counsel to LGBT immigrant families. In 2011, the organization fielded 1,431 legal inquiries from binational couples like those in the suit filed this week, a 141 percent increase over the previous year.

In his letter of appeal on the local couple’s behalf, Sen Blumenthal stated, “Kelli is a United States citizen with a PhD in immunology. Lucy, who hails from the United Kingdom, is an ENT surgeon with an MD and PhD. Kelli works for a pharmaceutical company in Connecticut, and is deeply engaged in drug discovery research to help combat deadly autoimmune diseases, with a particular focus on multiple sclerosis. Lucy is a postdoctoral fellow at Yale.”

Thousands Affected

A recent analysis from the Williams Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles estimated 36,000 couples — and the nearly 25,000 children being raised by them — are impacted by the United States’ refusal to recognize lesbian and gay relationships for immigration purposes.

“Whether the federal government recognizes a couple’s marriage can determine whether a family may remain in the United States and live together, or may be torn apart,” the suit states, adding that “the federal government also has set the preservation of families as national priority.”

“As a nation,” the complaint filed with the court says, “we want to keep families together, not rip them apart.”

“These families represent the tens of thousands of others like them who are threatened with, or have already been forced into, separation, or exile,” Ms Tiven said. “Their victory in court will end the threat that has hung over their families, their homes, and their marriages for far too long.”

DOMA, the lawsuit concludes, “threatens … marriages while purporting to ‘defend’ marriage. It does violence not only to these five couples, not only to the institution of marriage, but to the Constitution of the United States.”

In his letter supporting the Newtown couple, Sen Blumenthal says, “Kelli and Lucy are active and valuable members of our community. Having been lawfully married in Connecticut, they now seek to establish long-term roots in our state.”

The senator continued, “Kelli would like to sponsor Lucy for a family-based immigration visa in the hopes of making Connecticut their permanent home. The United States stands to lose two highly intelligent and talented women to the United Kingdom if Lucy — a talented clinician, scientist, and valuable member of our community — is not able to stay in the United States.

“I ask that you act in this particular case to provide temporary relief to Kelli Ryan and Lucy Truman by holding their spousal petition in abeyance in an effort to avoid future harm to this couple and to the State of Connecticut,” Sen Blumenthal wrote.