In 2004 I started corresponding via email with a British woman in Canada who was planning to move with her wife to the Netherlands. As citizens of the UK and USA, they were unable to live in the US, which does not recognize same-sex relationships for immigration purposes, and had been denied the same right in the UK. They had been able to be together in Canada for six months, but their visas were running out and they needed to find a home.

The UK should have given the US partner residency, based on the Unmarried Partners law, which provides immigration rights to unmarried same-sex partners. However, they turned down her application for residency in the UK. (When they appealed their case, they were found to have been unjustly denied.)

So these two women were looking for a new home, and their sight fell on the Netherlands. As an EU citizen, a British citizen can sponsor her non-EU spouse for residency in the Netherlands. And that is what she did: they got on a plane and headed to a country where neither had roots, started a business and applied for residency for her wife.

This story strikes me in several ways:

* It is remarkable that in this day and age law-abiding citizens have to endure emotional and financial hardship to move to a distant country to live together as a family.
* These women have the persistence and commitment to do whatever it takes to be together -- from leaving their homes, to fighting battles in court, to starting up a business in a country where neither speaks the language. How inspiring to know these women!
* How remarkable that there is a country where it's possible to begin life over again and to live freely.

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