The collection, which was formerly part of the ONE subject files, consists of Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and general correspondence, legal records, court filings and exhibits, and newspaper clippings along with flyers and fund raising solicitations from the Anthony Sullivan Defense Fund League. The Legal records and the Correspondence folders document Sullivan's deportation and appeals process from 1974-1985, and are arranged chronologically. The Correspondence folder also contains a letter from Sullivan, mailed to ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives in May 2009, giving a history of the case. The materials from the Women's Employment Options Conference (WEOC) 1978 include Sullivan's conference name tag. The Photographs folder contains a headshot of Sullivan and a photograph of Jim Kepner, Troy Perry, and Frank Zerilli.

Anthony Corbett Sullivan met Richard Frank Adams at the Closet Bar in Los Angeles in 1971 and within a few months they were living together. Sullivan, an Australian citizen had been traveling on a tourist visa, and by 1974 he had exhausted all his legal options to stay in the United States. It was at this time that Sullivan and Adams decided to fight for their right to continue to live together in the United States. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) initiated deportation proceedings in April 1975, but granted Sullivan a continuance to file for political asylum on the grounds that he would face persecution if he returned to Australia. During the continuance it came to Sullivan and Adams' attention that marriage licenses were being granted to same-sex couples in Colorado; they traveled to Colorado and were married on April 21, 1975, by Robert A. Sirico and Freda Smith, both ordained ministers of the Universal Fellowship of the Metropolitan Community Church (UFMCC). Adams then petitioned the INS for spousal status for Sullivan; while the petition was being considered, the INS adjourned Sullivan's deportation hearing. When the deportation hearing resumed in February 1980, Sullivan sought its suspension, claiming that deportation would cause extreme hardship to himself and Adams. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) rejected Sullivan's hardship claims and refused to consider Adams to be "a qualifying relative to whom hardship may be shown under the express provisions of the statue." Their lawyer, David M. Brown, appealed the BIA's ruling in Adams v. Howerton.

1 archive carton. 0.4 linear foot.

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