Richard Adams, a Filipino-American, and Tony Sullivan, an Australian national, met in 1971 when Sullivan was in the United States on a tourist visa. After hearing about a county clerk in Boulder, Colorado, who was marrying same sex couples, the two were married in March 1975. However, the Immigration and Naturalization Service refused to recognize the marriage, and, in a rejection letter, used a homophobic slur. In the face of impending deportation, the couple sued the U.S. government. The resulting case, Adams v. Howerton, was decided against them. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear their case. When Sullivan was deported, the couple spent time in Europe before deciding to smuggle Sullivan back into the U.S. and live illegally in Los Angeles. He and Adams fought on in the court of public opinion through the mid-80s, with appearances on multiple shows. Through this couple's story, what we really see is how Americans changed over a period of time through laws of DOMA, Prop 8 and others till finally Obama and Supreme Court declared gay marriages to be legal, but a little too late of this loving couple.
Both Adams and Sullivan come across as highly likeable, sympathetic people who enjoyed a lasting love that few couples experience. Awareness of this good fortune means that even in the bleakest parts of the film they never some across as moaning; they are always, simply, focused on a need to be together. There's a lot of legal detail in the film but it's delivered so fluently, in the midst of the personal story, that you'll hardly notice yourself being educated. The documentary tells this story so beautifully and with such poignancy that might make even fundamentalists reconsider gay rights. The film shows both men beset by health issues and struggling with old age in the mid-2000s. With their love story at its center, “Limited Partnership” becomes less a polemic about gay marriage and more a universal tale about devotion through good times and bad, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. The documentary was filmed over a period of more than 10 years and the last 5-10 minutes are indeed very emotional to watch. There are a few documentaries that are capable of holding my attention. With subjects like this, the makers had a winner on Hans, but to give credit where ie due, I think its the directors vision and how he kept things simple, yet effective focussing on love and thinned to be together, and this is what makes this documentary extra special. (7/10)
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