Gay porn star reportedly commits suicide after U.S. laws prevent recognition of his marriage

Wilfried Knight (right), an acupuncturist and porn star of French extraction, reportedly committed suicide last week in Vancouver, though his death was only confirmed by friends on Monday night. His husband, Jerry Enriquez, reportedly hanged himself in their home on February 21, 2013 and Knight was the person to discover the body.

In a series of lengthy blog posts on his personal site (NSFW) before his own death, Knight wrote that he and Enriquez were forced to move to Canada after Knight's student visa expired because, although the couple were legally married in Canada in 2011, the U.S. Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) prohibits the federal government from recognizing legal same sex marriages or affording same sex spouses rights normally afforded to heterosexual spouses -- including the right to sponsor one's spouse for a greencard. Knight wrote:

Never mind our commitment, our years together, i was to be thrown out. My partner knew it and decided to look for a job in the only country that would allow us to be together and marry: Canada.

And i know what most people will say: Why didn’t you guys marry in Washington, or California, or NYC? Well, IF YOU ARE TWO GAY MEN FROM DIFFERENT NATIONALITY, STATE MARRIAGE DOES NOT MATTER, EVEN IF ONE IS AMERICAN: IT NEEDS TO EXIST ON THE FEDERAL LEVEL TO APPLY TO A MULTINATIONAL COUPLE.

Knight wrote that Enriquez secured a job in Vancouver in 2012 with the yoga-and-sportwear company Lululemon, and the couple left America to try to start a life there. Instead, Enriquez was fired by Lululemon after a series of events that both left the couple embittered and Enriquez without employment, a visa or health insurance. Five months, and Knight came home to a sight not easily forgotten.

He had it well prepared. When i came back home worried for not receiving any answer to my texts, i found him there..hanging. I since then discovered the poor guy was on clonazepam and zoplicone to cope with the stress..which he had left there on the side with a bottle of wine he had purchased that morning…Which simply seemed aimed at me, in a way saying: “follow me and see you on the other side”.

In the posts he wrote before his own death, Knight repeatedly referred to his belief that Enriquez had meant for him to follow by leaving the pills and wine, even calling it "a last proof of love: he goes the hard way (who wants to die hanging?) and leave me the easy road."

In the time that followed Enriquez's suicide, Knight also discovered that the same laws that prevented recognition of their marriage in life prevented him from being recognized as a surviving spouse after his husband's death.

BUT, if you like me have met your partner and lived in USA before, purchased goods, a condo together, well, if you are not from the same nationality, even if state gay marriage exist, in the absence of a will, the living partner left gets….NOTHING.

Knight added that Enriquez's sister and brother would be packing up what was left of their possessions in the States and keeping the proceeds, despite having been on good terms with their brother in life.

Immigration Equality, a U.S.-based nonprofit which works to help same sex couples remain together despite legal barriers to the recognition of their marriages, estimates that there are 35, 820 same sex couples in the United States who face the same painful choices that Knight and Enriquez did in their lives: comply with U.S. immigration law and separate; live out of compliance with U.S. law; or move abroad. Communications Director Steve Ralls told Raw Story in a statement:

Suicide under any circumstance is a tragedy and in this case that tragedy is compounded. Immigration Equality was not aware of Knight's case and it's difficult to know all the details surrounding his and his partner's suicide. What we do know, however, is that no couple should have to deal with the difficult circumstances our immigration laws force so many into. That's why we're committed to changing the law as soon as possible. The separation and discrimination couples face is very real and very painful.

Immigration Equality had pushed the Senators who crafted the Democrats' immigration reform legislation to specifically include immigration rights for the same sex spouses of U.S. citizens, and have pushed for a separate bill to address the needs of binational same sex families, the Democrats' current immigration reform framework bill contains no mention of the immigration rights of same sex spouses.

In the last post before Knight's own death, he said one of the points of his posts was, "US OR ANY COUNTRY SHOULD HAVE NATIONAL/FEDERAL GAY MARRIAGE TO ALLOW PEOPLE LIKE JERRY AN ME TO BE TOGETHER, EVEN IF FROM DIFFERENT NATIONALITY."

Knight's friend Michael Mew told Queerty in a statement that Knight took his own life only two days later "in the same hotel where they were legally married."

[Photo of Jerry Enriquez and Wilfried Knight courtesy of byronbeck.com]