Out Spotlight

Today's Out Spotlight filed the first U.S. lawsuit to seek federal recognition of same-sex marriage. What should have been the beginning of a happy marriage laid the groundwork for his almost 40-year quest for federally recognized marriage equality. Today's Out Spotlight is Richard Adams.
 
Richard Adams was born in Manila in the Philippines. His family moved to the United States when he was 12, and he grew up in Long Prairie, Minnesota. He studied liberal arts at the University of Minnesota.
Adams became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1968 and lived in Los Angeles, California when he met Australian citizen Anthony Corbett "Tony" Sullivan in 1971. They were issued a marriage license along with five other gay couples by Boulder County Clerk Clela Rorex in Boulder, Colorado on April 21, 1975.

They were married by Rev. Elder Freda Smith, clergy in Metropolitan Community Churches and Rev. Robert Sirico (now a Catholic priest but then MCC clergy). The event was witnessed by Rev. Charlie Arehart, pastor of MCC of the Rockies in Denver and Frank Zerilli, Rev. Troy Perry's long-time assistant. They were married before the Colorado Attorney General declared same-sex marriage licenses invalid.

Adams applied to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) for Sullivan to receive a permanent residency green card as the spouse of an American citizen. In response, the couple received an INS reply that stated, “You have failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots.”
Adams lodged a formal protest. The INS reissued their denial without the slur.

Adams filed a suit in federal court, but the judge upheld the INS. Adams filed a second federal suit claiming that after an eight-year relationship, deportation of Sullivan constituted extreme hardship. The federal district court and U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against Adams.

Subsequently, Sullivan requested permanent residency for Adams in Australia. The Australian government denied the request. In 1985 the couple moved to Britain. Adams left behind his family and friends and a job he had for over 18 years. After one year in Britain, the couple returned to the U.S. and kept a low profile so as not to attract INS attention.

Subsequent to Adams’s death in 2012 and after the U.S. Attorney General in 2011 declared the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, Sullivan filed for a green card as Adams’s widower, so he could remain permanently in the United States.

 “We really felt that people could achieve the life they wanted.”