Gay Marriage is Legal | Now What About Gay Divorce?

 As many celebrate the recent Supreme Court ruling that allows gay couples to legally marry in the State of  California , what some don’t realize is that getting a divorce can be another hurdle for same-sex couples. The problem arises when couples who get married in states like California  or Massachusetts  arrive home to states where same-sex marriages are illegal.

For same-sex couples, the divorce process can be burdened with additional hassles, such as appearing in three different courts, including a civil court that treats the separation as a business breakup.

In addition to the standard questions about dividing assets and paying alimony, same-sex couples also find themselves confronting a host of sticky legal issues not faced by heterosexual couples, complicating a process that even under the best of circumstances can be emotionally exhausting and expensive. For instance, there's the federal government. For federal tax purposes, alimony is normally deductible for the person paying and counted as income for the person on the receiving end. But same-sex marriages don’t yet have standing in the eyes of the IRS.

Given the messy situation of recognition and non-recognition for same-sex relationships that currently exists in the United States, getting married in California, especially for non-Californians, is a serious decision with an assortment of complicated legal and financial consequences that can cost you.  

Everyone has the right to marry. The Supreme Courts in  California and Massachusetts  have taken the bold step of saying that the right to marry includes the right to marry a person of the same sex. However, gay couples who still live in the state where they got married can split up with little difficulty; the laws in those states include divorce or dissolution procedures for same-sex couples. But gay couples who have moved to another state are running into trouble. Getting a divorce could prove toughest in some of the 43 states that have explicitly banned or limited same-sex unions.

In  Rhode Island , for example, the state's top court ruled in December that gays married in neighboring Massachusetts can't get divorced in Rhode Island because lawmakers have never defined marriage as anything but a union between a man and woman. In Missouri, a judge is deciding whether a lesbian women who was married in Massachusetts can get an annulment. 

Obtaining a marriage license in  Massachusetts has been made relatively simple. But the rules governing divorce are stricter. Out-of-state couples could go  back to Massachusetts to get divorced, but they would have to live there for a year to establish residency first.

In the last few months, many people from across the country have come to California, gotten married and gone back home. The issues are going to have many practical ramifications in all of these other states that have passed either Constitutional amendments or Defense of Marriage Acts that say we do not recognize this kind of relationship.

The court will say that they don’t recognize you as a legally married couple. But, as with heterosexual couples, the likelihood of gay couples owning homes together, having kids in school and dealing with medical issues is very real. So, whether for it or against it, perhaps the courts might eventually have to deal with these situations and be forced to figure out how these couples can divorce in their home states.