Tony Sullivan and Richard Adams fell in love in the early 1970s and through a loophole in the law, were able to marry in Boulder Colorado.

They spent the next 40 years trying to get their marriage recognised by the American authorities. This week the ABC program ‘Compass’ will share their poignant story.

The 2014 documentary ‘Limited Partnership’ will be played in two parts over the next fortnight.

A  real life tale of two men defending their love and faith in a system that denies their very existence provides a powerful record of the struggle for gay marriage rights in the US.

The two part documentary begins on Sunday night 6:30pm and concludes the following week.

Australian man Richard Adams met his husband Tony Sullivan California in 1971. In 1975 the couple heard about Clela Rorex, a court clerk in Boulder, Colorado, who was issuing marriage licences to same-sex couples because she could not see a moral or legal reason not to.

They headed to Colorado,wed and set about applying Adams to become a US citizen. Their application got a fair amount of news coverage at the time. When they head back from the authorities the were shocked by the blunt response.

“You have failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots,” the statement from the US government read.

So began the couples long fight for recognition.

Watch ‘Compass’ on Sunday night from 6:30pm.