Dubliners Catriona Dowling, bottom, with Cathy Davis, top, and their three adopted children.

Dubliners Catriona Dowling, bottom, with Cathy Davis, top, and their three adopted children.

AN IRISH WOMAN has become the first person ever to be granted legal residence in the United States through her same-sex marriage.

Cathy Davis, a nurse from Dublin, was given a green card following her marriage to fellow Dubliner, Catriona Dowling in May 2012.

Dowling, who is a naturalized US citizen, met Davis on a climbing trip in the Himalayas in 2006. They have three adopted children together, one son from Guatemala and two daughters from Haiti.

On AmericaBlog.com, the couple reveal that Cathy was denied an extension of her work visa, so they joined The Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA) Project and filed a green card petition “to prevent their family from being torn apart and to demand equality under the law”.

Davis was issued with the green card on 3 July following the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down DOMA.

Dubliners Catriona Dowling, left, and Cathy Davis, right. Davis became the first person to receive a green card through her same-sex marriage to Dowling. (Pic: gay binationals/YouTube)

Here is Cathy and Catriona’s story before David received her green card:



(gaybinationals/YouTube)