The Associated Press reported over the weekend that Senator John Kerry has asked the Obama administration to grant asylum for a gay man who was forced to return to Brazil after being married in Massachusetts:

“Genesio “Junior” Oliveira has been separated from his husband, Tim Coco, since August 2007, when he left the country after his request for asylum and an appeal were denied. Oliveira asked for asylum in 2002, saying he was raped and attacked by a physician as a teenager in Brazil, and feared persecution because of his sexuality.”

Oliveira’s original asylum request was denied, Kerry stated in his letter to the administration, because while “Immigration Judge Francis Cramer found Oliveira’s testimony to be credible and his fear of living in Brazil genuine,” he argued the man “was never physically harmed” by the rape.”

Woah. Back up.

The judge found Oliveira’s testimony credible and denied his asylum request because his rape wasn’t “physically” harmful? Setting aside for a moment the fact that there are whole other kinds of harmful (like emotional and psychological, to start), this judge’s decision reveals the startling inconsistencies allowed by our justice system.

But this case also reveals another catastrophic failing of our justice system: the wide-ranging discriminatory effects of the Defense of Marriage Act. Had the federal government been able to recognize the Massachusetts marriage between Oliveira and his husband, Tim Coco, this situation would never have arisen. Oliveira could have, like the hundreds of thousands of people who do this every year, remained in the US as the spouse of a citizen.

Senator Kerry isn’t waiting for the repeal of DOMA (and given the indications by the DOMA repeal timeline might not be as expedient as we all hope, that’s probably for the best), and is co-sponsoring the Uniting American Families Act. UAFA would allow same-sex partners to sponsor their non-citizen spouses for residency or citizenship in the same way opposite-sex married couples already can.

Until DOMA can be repealed, UAFA is an important step, and hopefully, Senator Kerry’s work on behalf of Junior Oliveira and Tim Coco will help raise awareness about this issue in an impactful way.