Couple Not Giving Up

After the Supreme Court ruled last week that the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to same-sex marriage, the phrase “love wins” quickly hit the airwaves and social media as a testament to the fact that over everything else — even in the face of the nation’s highest court — love can prevail at the end of the day.

But for the family of one local couple who has been mired in a lawsuit with their former disability providers, the ruling came as a reminder that in the end, love has not won for them in the eyes of the law. At least not yet.About five weeks ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit dismissed an appeal that had been filed on behalf of Paul and Hava Forziano.
The original lawsuit, which garnered national attention at the time, claimed that because neither of their nonprofit caretakers gave the married couple the facilities to live together, both organizations — Independent Group Home Living and Maryhaven — as well as the commissioner of the New York State Office of Persons with Developmental Disabilities discriminated against them under several statutes, including the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act. The case was dismissed last March by U.S. Eastern District Court of New York Judge Leonard Wexler.