(USA) - According to the 2000 US Census, some 35,000 same-sex couples who list themselves as "unmarried partners" similarly include one person who is a US citizen and one person who is not. Because Congress passed - and former President Clinton signed - the mean-spirited "Defense of Marriage Act" in 1996, no federal rights extend to the roughly 9,000 married same-sex couples in Massachusetts. There are more than 1,000 different benefits - from filing joint income taxes to receiving Social Security benefits - that are denied to same-sex couples everywhere in the country, whether they live in a state that recognizes their marriage or civil union status or not. The ability of a US citizen to sponsor a husband or wife for immigration to the United States, called a form I-130, is just one of them.
