(USA) - For Eric Affholter, the St. Louis public defender, it was an almost impossible decision: lose the man he loves, leave the country to be with him or commit a federal crime. Affholter picked the crime. "It was an agonizing decision from a personal perspective, from a legal perspective," he said in an interview. But he and Pedro Cerna-Rojas did what they thought best, Affholter said. They asked a good friend - who was an assistant public defender in Affholter's office - to marry Cerna-Rojas to save him from being forced home to Peru for want of a visa. A marriage between a man and a woman is recognized for immigration purposes, but civil unions and gay marriages - even where they are allowed - do not qualify under the Defense of Marriage Act, said Adam Francoeur, policy coordinator of Immigration Equality.
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