Frances Herbert and Takako UedaDUMMERSTON, Vt. (AP) - Two married Vermont women are among the five same-sex couples challenging the constitutionality of a Federal Defense of Marriage Act provision.
Dummerston residents Frances Herbert and Takako Ueda, originally from Japan, were included in a larger suit filed in New York challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal benefits to married gay couples.
Advocates say if they were heterosexual couples, the government would recognize the foreign spouse as an immediate relative of the U.S. citizen.
The lawsuit was filed Monday.
Herbert met Ueda at a Michigan college 30 years ago. The Brattleboro Reformer says they were married a year ago, but a petition for a residency permit for Ueda was denied several months later.
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