After North Carolina voters decided to ban same-sex marriages, this morning, President Obama, on ABC News’ Robin Roberts, mentioned -“I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married”.
So, this is a significant step towards marriage equality in the US, but will be not exempt of controversy and in an election year, this could well be a point that can define the swing electorate towards, or away from voting for President Obama.
What could be the impact of this measure, if becomes Federal? What if the DOMA (Defense of Marriage) that restricts the marriage to heterosexual couples is repealed?
Many States already allow same-sex marriage and unions. But what if the DOMA is repealed? Potentially it means that US Citizens will be able to petition their same sex spouse for immigration benefits, in this case, the Green Card, just like it happens right now with heterosexual couples. Now, if the I-130 and I-485 rules remain the same, the mechanism for the USCIS field offices interviews should potentially be different? What about consular cases where the spouse lives in a foreing country?
The fact that President Obama publicly has endorsed the same-sex marriage, it is a good start for the equality of rights for all Americans, and potentially, their foreign same-sex spouses.
