Faced with losing the life they’ve built together in the dusty California desert town of Cathedral City, Doug Gentry and Alex Benshimol are making a last-ditch effort to stave off the looming threat of deportation.
To a large degree, the couple is stuck. While the American information technology consultant and Venezuelan pet groomer wed at a romantic Connecticut ceremony last year, the federal government won’t recognize the marriage between the two men — and as a result, won’t approve their application for a green card granting permanent residency status for Benshimol.
But the couple, and others facing a similar predicament, are still trying. The men don’t expect to actually obtain a green card any time soon and have already been shot down once but hope filing an application might convince an immigration judge to at least refrain from deporting Benshimol while the fiery legal debate over the country’s same-sex marriage laws simmers.
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Okay.. am I understanding this correctly… America is denying same-sex couples green cards and deporting them, while the UK is getting ready to send a gay women here who is being persecuted there…