"It's very insulting to come to the United States as an American citizen with your partner or your spouse and be told you cannot be treated as a family," Steve Ralls, a spokesman for Immigration Equality, said of the rule. "It is a symbolic step forward toward making sure that gay and lesbian couples will no longer be subjected to a different standard and they're no longer invisible in the process."

The proposed rule change, which was posted to the Federal Register website on Tuesday, would expand the definition of a family for the purpose of customs forms for entering the United States. Under the current rule, same-sex partners must file separate forms rather than entering as a ...