"Until Death Do Us Part": Texas Denies Couple Gay Divorce

In a predictable move, the Texas legal system has just thrown out the case of a gay Dallas couple seeking to file for divorce. The petition, which was filed on Jan. 21 in Dallas County’s 302nd District Court, sets up a legal showdown over whether courts will grant divorces to same-sex couples who’ve married legally in another state.

Texas, which has a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union between a man and a woman, doesn’t recognize the same-sex marriages of other states. In 2003, the state Attorney General’s Office ruled that a same-sex couple from Beaumont couldn’t use a Texas court to dissolve the civil union they obtained in Vermont.

Attorney Peter Schulte represents one of the the two men, who were married in Massachusetts in 2006, "My clients want to move on with their lives," Schulte said, "but they've got to do it so there's no financial or political burden left on them with having this marriage kind of sitting out there."

If the men were to attempt to file for divorce in Massachusetts, where they were married, the Family and Probate Court would also throw out their case, but for a different reason. Under these circumstances, Massachusetts requires that one party to the marriage establish residency for a period of 1 year in order to bring the marriage (and therefore, the divorce) within the jurisdiction of the court.

The Massachusetts residency requirement presumes that if neither of the parties to the marriage has lived in the state for at least 1 year, another state is probably the more appropriate forum for the divorce action. This presumption places an undue burden on same-sex couples, who often cannot obtain divorce in the state where they reside.

The ramifications of this legal dispute go well beyond the couple's own marriage. Same-sex marriage opponents in Texas are correct to assert that by allowing same-sex divorce, the courts are impliedly recognizing same-sex marriage. After all, one of the prerequisits for filing divorce in any state is that the parties did, indeed, have a valid marriage to begin with.

Peter Schulte, who represents the plaintiff, has stated that he will appeal the case and argue that the United States Constitution dictates that states must recognize valid out-of-state same-sex marriages for the purposes of granting divorce.

While this case is a first for Texas, it is not the first nationwide. Recently, a same-sex couple in Rhode Island was denied a divorce for the same reason. Another same-sex couple in Iowa was successful in obtaining a divorce from a local court there.