HRC Blog

MD Business Owner Forced to Choose Between Her Shop & Her Family

June 25, 2012 by HRC staff

Post submitted by Bryce Romero, HRC Assistant for Consumer Marketing:

What if a federal law made you choose between the business you’ve built or the family you love?

For some families, it does.

That’s precisely what happened to the owner Jill DiMauro of College Park, MD’s popular Proteus Bicycles.

Typically citizens and legal permanent residents are able to sponsor spouses in order to obtain legal resident status. However, because of the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal government does not recognize DiMauro’s 2007 marriage to her Canadian same-sex partner.

When her partner’s visa expired, DiMauro decided to sell her bike shop rather than split up their family. She moved to upstate New York so she could be closer to her partner, who remains in Canada.

The new owners of Proteus hope to maintain the original spirit and vision; however, for DiMauro, the damage has been done.

The DiMauro family’s story is just one more heartbreaking example of how much DOMA hurts families.