Same-sex marriage, been told no chance of divorce
July 25, 2008 9:07 am Other Divorce News
Imagine falling in love, waiting 10 years for it to be legal for you to marry, spending 2 years in wed-lock, marriage breaks down then you’re told, Sorry but you just can’t get a divorce, this is what happened to Cassandra Ormiston and her long term partner Margaret Chambers.
They got married in Massachusetts in 2004, the couple rushed across the boarders from Providence one morning as they heard that some Massachusetts cities where going to stop issuing marriage licenses to gay couples who lived outside the state. By that afternoon the couples were happily married. Orminston, said to marry her long term partner at the age of 58 filled her with immense joy and her feet didn’t touch the ground for days.
When the couple became unhappy in their marriage, chambers filed for divorce, but it was proving very difficult as it’s extremely common that same-sex couples married in one state can’t divorce in another, the couple were thrown into a legal limbo.
Rhodes Island does not recognise gay marriage, this is where Ormiston is from, so the Supreme Court said that the women could not be granted a divorce as in the eyes of the state they were not legally married.
They couldn’t file for divorce in a Massachusetts court as divorce is only an option if you have been resident in the state and lived there for over a year.
The couple feels that they have been given an indefinite marriage which they say is a living nightmare.
Same-sex couples are realising its a lot more difficult to get divorced than it was getting married; it’s proving complicated if you are from different states who have different laws. Even in California and Massachusetts there is a clash between federal and state laws making the process far from easy, even though gay couples have the same right to divorce as heterosexual couples.
Lawyer who have dealt with gay divorces, say even when gay couples are allowed to divorce, the financial consequences are far worse than heterosexual couples. For instance if a heterosexual couple divide a pension during divorce, federal law allows the pension to be paid out without incurring any early-withdrawal penalties, If you a gay divorcing couples you will have penalties.
It’s also said that in gay divorces if the judge orders one party to pay assets or money to a spouse these could be subject to gift or income tax, plus if a property is transferred from joint ownership to one gay spouse, capital gains taxes are often liable, this wouldn’t happen in a heterosexual divorce. The fact is Federal law only sees marriage as between a man and a woman.
Are you going through a gay divorce? let us know what problems you have faced.
