A lesbian couple from Boulder is among the first in the country to get a green card for a spouse since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act last month, according to a national advocacy group.
The ruling allowed married same-sex couples to receive the same federal benefits as married heterosexual couples.
Catriona Dowling and Cathy Davis were married last year in Iowa. Davis, a nurse, is a citizen of Ireland. She has been in the United States with a work visa, which allowed her to be in Boulder with Dowling and their three children.
On Wednesday morning, Dowling used her home computer to print out a copy of a statement Monday by U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, which said the federal government would treat the immigration process of all married couples the same.
Dowling took it, along with the entire family, to the U.S.. Citizenship and Immigration Services Office in Centennial, which granted the green card.
“They were extremely nice about it,” Dowling said. “And we were so excited.”
She screamed. She cried. She went back to work at CenturyLink, she said.
Had the Supreme Court not acted, Dowling and Davis were ready to leave the country to keep their family together. “We have been in a constant state of instability,” Dowling said.
The DOMA Project, the Los Angeles-based legal initiative that started in 2010, sought green-card recognition for same-sex couples in about 100 cases nationwide.
“By issuing a green card to Cathy Davis on the basis of her marriage to Catriona, the U.S. government is finally recognizing the inherent dignity of this family and giving tangible meaning to Justice (Anthony) Kennedy’s ruling,” lawyer Lavi Soloway, co-founder of the DOMA Project, said in a statement.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174, jbunch@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joeybunch
