Glenn Cunningham + Adriano Vilar, Ireland’s First Legally Recognized Gay Couple
Since they had a civil partnership ceremony last year in Northern Ireland, a country inside the United Kingdom, Glenn Cunningham, 43, and Adriano Vilar, 29, have become the first gay couple to have their union legally recognized by Ireland, where they live. Congrats, gentlemen!
New couples were allowed to begin registering for civil partnerships last week when the new law took effect, but will only be recognized beginning in April after the mandatory three-month waiting period. Existing unions from other jurisdictions around the world, however, were recognized immediately.
And the timing of Ireland’s new law couldn’t have come any sooner: Vilar, a Brazilian national, has been living in the country for the past two years on a student visa, which limited his job status (he can only work 20 hours per week) and put him at risk of deportation. But when the pair visited an Irish immigration office to address Vilar’s visa concerns, they received some amazing news: “At first the officials didn’t know what to do, they’d never dealt with a legally binding civil partnership involving a gay couple,” says Cunningham. “Eventually, the officials came back and said: ‘Congratulations – you’re the first couple in Ireland to be recognised as civil partners’. We were shocked – we couldn’t believe it!”
I hope it’s real love. That was Ireland and majority of Brazilians living in UK and other countries are there illegally and surprisingly (mine + other people experiences) their obsession with marriage tends to pop up very early in the dating process.
It became such an issue that Brazil was removed from the US Visa waiver program.
Peace & Love.
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Reality is that he could have earned much more living as Brazilian in Brazil than he did as Brazilian in Ireland, where under the visa he haad he was restriced to 20 hours nwork a week.
And his visa is strictly subject to me and him presenting ourselves to the Immigration dept annually for 1st 3 years, then 3 years after that, so laws are off putting for someone not presenting real love.
Hope you find it.
G.
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@ProfessorVP: Misleading? Really?
Ireland hasn’t yet approved same-sex marriages. That would be news!
The headline refers to legal recognition of a couple. Q’ty gets headlines mixed up all the time, but this one was spot on.
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Best wishes to the Cunningham-Vilar family.
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Like some of the posters above, I too have concerns about the whole immigration situation, I’m aware of more than one situation where I have serious doubts about the intentions of the non national partners. Of course that’s true of straight couples also, but to me it cheapens the whole thing if it’s more about convenience than love.
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You have no idea how weird it is to go to a website you check daily, and see your photo on it!
Yay us!
The Cunningham-Vilar Family.