While same-sex couples are increasingly being allowed to get married and have the union legally recognized, there are hovering questions about same-sex divorce. Massachusetts is important in a vast number of these cases as it was there that many of the couples were first able to legally marry. This was the situation with two women who were married to one another and had their subsequent divorce upheld by the Texas Supreme Court.
Although Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had lobbied for the court to strike down the decision, and the court is filled by Republicans who frequently dispute the right of same-sex couples to marry, the justices ruled 5-3 that there was not sufficient cause to refuse to overturn the 2010 divorce. The marriage took place in Massachusetts in 2004.
Texas currently does not allow same-sex couples to marry. The case was not decided based on the actual decision allowing the couple to divorce, but that the state took too long to try and overturn it. It was not expected that a lower court would allow the divorce. The current governor was the state’s attorney general at the time the divorce was allowed and challenged it.
Earlier in 2015, another judge in Travis County had allowed two women to be granted a marriage license making them the first same-sex union since a state ban was implemented in 2005. This is just one of the cases that has come up regarding same-sex couples and divorce. The recognition of these marriages and divorces is seemingly changing regularly. The legality in some states of a divorce between same-sex partners is often an issue, and discussing the matter with experienced legal counsel might be a way to determine how to move forward.