(CNN) -- Anthony Sullivan was a young Australian with Robert Redford looks. Richard Adams emigrated from the Philippines as a child and became an American citizen. The two met in Los Angeles, fell in love and got married in Boulder, Colorado -- long before any state legalized same-sex marriage. County Clerk Clela Rorex issued the gay couple a marriage license at 11 a.m., April 21, 1975. Nothing in the Colorado marriage code mentioned same-sex marriage, and Rorex signed licenses for six couples before the district attorney advised her to end to them. But the licenses were never rescinded. Sullivan and Adams believed their marriage was legal and embarked on a decades-long struggle to attain permanent resident status for Sullivan.
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Australian Tony Sullivan married Richard Adams, a U.S. citizen, in 1975
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No country in the world recognized same-sex marriage then
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Sullivan overstayed his tourist visa and lived under the radar in order to be with his love
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One year after DOMA was struck down, Sullivan is trying again for permanent residence
After @placeholder's demise, about 40,000 such couples became eligible for immigration rights.