Outspoken American author and journalist Dan Savage told his husband Thursday morning their marriage was no longer valid.
What did husband Terry Miller have to say about that?
“Nothing you can print,” Savage told Metro in an interview from Seattle.
The couple reacted to news reports saying the Conservative Government is arguing same-sex non-resident couples who married in Canada are not legally wed.
“We’re not crawled up in the fetal position on the floor, we’re getting up and we’re going to fight,” he said. “But we’re pissed.
“You can’t give someone a marriage licence, tell them that their marriage is valid, have no asterisk…and then years and years and years later say, ‘Oh, by the way – psych! Didn’t mean it.’”
Savage said the controversy has left marriages like his in “legal limbo” and if the federal policy on same-sex marriage nullifies his marriage, then it has far-reaching consequences.
“In Washington state, my husband and I are domestic partners because we’re married in Canada,” said Savage, who married Miller in Vancouver in 2005. “So if we’re not married in Canada, we’re not domestic partners here.”
Although Washington state doesn’t perform same-sex marriages, it does recognize domestic partnerships that were performed in jurisdictions where same-sex marriage is legal.
Savage said the news was “personally distressing” and “a big step backwards for Canada.” He and his husband will continue to fight to ensure the issue is debated until equality is granted to all same-sex couples.
As a gay rights activist, Savage is well-known for his It Gets Better movement which was started with an online video of him and his husband reaching out to gay youth to prevent teen suicides.
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