Andrew Sullivan, the former editor of
The New Republic and the blogger behind The Dish,
has called the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unjust.
DOMA is the 1996
law which forbids federal agencies from recognizing the legal
marriages of gay and lesbian couples.
In an
appearance Sunday morning on CNN's GPS,
Sullivan discussed his struggles to get a Green Card.
“There are two
reasons,” Sullivan told host Fareed Zakaria. “One, because I'm
HIV positive and have been since 1993. And, secondly, because I'm
gay. And my marriage, which is legal in both my resident states –
Massachusetts and Washington, DC – is not recognized by the federal
government. So I am not granted an automatic Green Card by virtue of
marriage, along with everybody who happens to be in a same-sex
marriage.”
If I were straight
“It would be automatically granted, because people understand that
if you fall in love with someone, you want to build your life with
them. And if you've been married, as we have now for four years,
together for eight, that's something to tear people apart like that,
is an injustice to the American involved.”
He added that when
he found out he was HIV-positive in 1993 he had to withdraw his Green
Card application.
“I was about to
become an American, as I had long dreamed of. And it was dashed
because of this,” he said. “I was more crushed by being excluded
from America than I was fearful of dying.”
Sullivan received
his Green Card last year.
(Watch
the entire segment at Mediaite.com.)