Yet another example

Here’s yet another example of the gratuitous cruelty of the United States’ immigration laws as they pertain to GLBT couples. The video above tells the story of Bradford Wells and Anthony John Makk, a gay couple who have been together for 19 years and who legally married in Massachusetts several years ago. Yet because of the infamous Defense of Marriage Act, their marriage cannot be recognised by immigration authorities, meaning that the men are complete strangers to one another in the eyes of federal law.

This matters because Makk is a native of Australia and—because the US Government refuses to recognise their legal marriage—Makk now faces deportation to Australia before the end of this month.

Adding another layer of cruelty, Makk is the primary caregiver for Wells, who has AIDS. Because of those health issues, Wells can’t emigrate to Australia. So, the US Government is set to rip apart a couple that’s been together 19 years because of a blatantly unconstitutional law that still lingers and that the Obama Administration is still fully enforcing. The US Government is about to split up a legally married couple, and take away a primary caregiver, because of the hatred and bigotry of some US politicians and the cowardice of the Administration.

This sort of thing will continue to happen until DOMA is struck down by the courts or repealed by Congress. Neither will happen—neither can happen—for many years, perhaps a decade or more. Meanwhile, Republicans are clearly preparing to make gay people their wedge issue yet again, with many of their presidential candidates already openly calling to amend the US Constitution to permanently ban marriage equality. With the zealotry and fierce religious bigotry of the modern Republican Party, don’t think that couldn’t happen.

And caught in the political crossfire are real people like Makk and Wells, people who suffer the gratuitous cruelty of the Government of the United States. And that’s exactly the way the hatemongers of the anti-gay industry like it.