Forced to Choose Between Love and Home

American Tony Mason, left, and Brit Asa Cairns now have the right to marry in a civil ceremony, but not in the United States. Mason has had to emigrate to England to have the right to marry his love.

The two lived together in Atlanta in the United States for two years, but even if Cairns had become a U.S. citizen, they still wouldn't legally have been a couple. That's why they're in England now, because under England's new Civil Partnership Act, they will be "spouses in the eyes of the U.K. government—and for the purposes of citizenship, hospital visitation rights, pensions, inheritance taxes and entitlement to most parental rights—the United States government will not recognize their union," says an MSNBC story.

England joins Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and other nations in legalizing same-sex unions. The United States is backwards when it comes to human rights. We torture Iraqis and keep people in love from marrying, in obeisance to a twisted sense of right and wrong.

For shame, America ... for shame.


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