Jasmyne Cannick | LA Progressive | July 7, 2013
he Supreme Court of the United States of America cleared the way for same-sex marriages to resume in the state of California. Unfortunately, for my girlfriend and I, we still can’t get married.
Even though we’re both natives of California and call the Golden State home, I am in Los Angeles while she’s living 2,400 miles away in Whittier, Alaska after giving up all hope of ever finding a job here.
Of African-American and Latino descent and fluent in three languages—English, Spanish, and American Sign Language—my girlfriend has past criminal convictions that make it practically impossible for her to find a job in California. For a time she would work sporadically after failing to check the box indicating that she’d been convicted of a felony crime. But, in the end, after companies completed their background check, she’d always be dismissed for failing to do so. I finally told her to just be truthful upfront and then the job offers stopped altogether because no one was willing to give her a chance to prove she had changed.
Filed under: Editorial/Opinion/Letters Tagged: Alaska, American Sign Language, California, Defense of Marriage Act, DOMA, gay marriage, Los Angeles, marriage equality, same-sex marriage, United States, United States Supreme Court, Whittier Alaska
