KTLA News: "Richard Adams and Tony Sullivan gay marriage case" (1979)

[Reporter Mike Botula] Like many gay couples in Hollywood   Anthony Sullivan and Richard Adams live together openly. What makes this couple unique, however,  is the fact that Sullivan and Adams are married- legally joined in a 1975 civil ceremony in  Colorado at a time when same-sex marriages attracted nationwide attention but because  he's an Australian citizen Sullivan has run afoul of the Immigration Service which refuses  to recognize the Colorado marriage license and therefore grant him permanent resident alien status. So now the couple has filed suit in  federal district court in Los Angeles and a forthcoming decision may change the whole legal concept of marriage. [Unidentified Attorney] Initially the position was that there could never be a valid marriage   between two men because almost by...by definition there must be a female role in a marriage. [Silence]. [Unidentified Attorney] It's uh...there is no such thing today... Naturalization Service are now final and our only recourse... basically says... [Silence]. [General kitchen noise. Sullivan and Adams chatting]. [Silence]. [Sullivan]...expanded too gay people... [Unidentified Attorney] ...marriage is uh...very much... [Silence]. [Unidentified Attorney] You know, that's really... actually uh...the third... [Sullivan] Uh...we've spent the last two days talking about... [Silence]. [Unidentified Attorney] ...but really what are the limitations of a formal marriage of two people.. [Silence]. [Unidentified Attorney] ...to discuss this in some depth if we simply... [Reporter Botula] Sullivan and Adams expect a fairly swift decision at the district court level but they expect the case to be appealed regardless of that decision. [Sullivan] Once we started to work to be able to remain together uh...we then realized that indeed our struggle has implications for the whole community uh...for all people, gay and non-gay, because there are a large number of also...of heterosexuals also who because   they're not married uh...can't get married for a variety of reasons who also  are excluded like we are. [Room noise]. [Botula] It will no doubt be several years   before the courts make their final decision and when they do the impact will extend far beyond these two people. In Hollywood, this is Mike Botula reporting for Channel 5 News Watch. [Silence]. [Unidentified Attorney]...of a lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles challenging the decision of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to deny uh... Tony Sullivan status as the spouse of an an American citizen, Richard Adams. Tony and Richard were married in Boulder, Colorado in 1975 pursuant to a marriage license that was issued by the County Clerk of Boulder, Colorado. Uh...their marriage is lawful   under Colorado law, in my opinion. There have been no court decisions in Colorado challenging this marriage or any other same-sex  marriage in Colorado. The Immigration Service, however, has refused to accept the validity of the marriage and actually they've taken different positions   in the course of the administrative proceeding. ...female functions. Uh...we pointed out that in the   case of a woman who is not fertile... [Silence]. [Unidentified Attorney]...obsolete that Tony and Richard  are legally married under the laws of Colorado. That...that is all that is required in order to obtain status as the spouse of an American citizen. And beyond that, and more fundamentally,  uh...it is a denial we say of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States to deny to gay people the benefits of the institution of marriage. Whether or not we happen to think as individuals that there is a little bit of value, a lot of value  or no value at all to the institution of marriage, nonetheless, there are benefits, there are rights  and obligations that flow from that institution and we think they ought to be available equally  to everybody- homosexual or heterosexual. That's why the lawsuit Tony and Richard  have each prepared... [Sullivan]...when dealing with the concept of anti-gay discrimination, is that many people do not realize that we gay people are capable of having loving relationships which are equally meaningful to us as those relationships that exist between non-gay people. The refusal to extend the benefits of legal marriage to gay people is a major act of anti-gay discrimination. If it were not for this, Richard and I would not have to spend these years struggling to be  allowed to remain together. The issue of legal marriage is one issue that must be dealt with by gay and non-gay society if we are to establish complete equality between our two communities. [Room noise] [Camera crew] Were gonna change mic's. [Room noise] [Botula] How do you see this involving all of  the gay community? Other people are in a similar situation. [Sullivan] Initially we started out on our own  personal struggle. We wanted to be together. Uhm...it was for ourselves initially. [Botula] ...feel you'll now be deported? [Silence]. [Botula] ...for that danger? [Sullivan] The danger of deportation uh... has in the past been very strong. In fact there was an attempt to have a deportation hearing to deport me. At the moment, it is my belief, that when there's...this  case is pending, that I have protection under the laws of the United States. [Unidentified Attorney] There is no deportation  proceeding pending uh...against Tony at this time and it's my belief also that the Immigration Service will wait until this lawsuit is decided   to proceed any further. [Reporter] Now you said the Attorney General of Colorado... [Room noise]. [Unidentified Attorney]...his informal ruling, it wasn't even that, it was a letter to a state legislator and it was not directed in particular at this marriage but at the question of same-sex marriages in general. [Botula] What without any other court ruling or formal legal opinion doesn't that stand as the... as the legal definition or the legal feeling about that   particular same-sex marriage? [Unidentified Attorney] Curiously the law is very clear in Colorado and in almost all of the Sates to the contrary. That the opinion, even a formal opinion of a State Attorney General, does not have the force of law and would have  no impact at all in a judicial proceeding and that...that's clear in Colorado as well as elsewhere. [Botula] You're asking the courts now to... to make that definition... make that finding one way or the other in your action? [Unidentified Attorney] Yes. We're asking the court uh... either to say that this was a lawful marriage under Colorado law and therefore has to be the proper basis for changing immigration status; Or, if they're not willing to...to say that then we have to get to the question of uh... is there a violation of the federal guarantee of equal protection of the laws involved in this situation. Obviously that...that issue  has tremendous ramifications way beyond just the field of immigration. I don't know whether the courts are...are... ready to...to tackle that problem. Uh... [Silence]. [General kitchen noise].