Posted on 10/09/2007 10:13:01 AM PDT by j_hig
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - A lesbian couple married in Massachusetts should have the same right as heterosexual couples to divorce in their home state of Rhode Island, lawyers for the women told the state's highest court Tuesday.
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Cassandra Ormiston and Margaret Chambers were married in 2004 after same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts. Last year, the couple filed for divorce in Rhode Island.
Rhode Island law is silent on the legality of same-sex marriages.
If the women can't divorce in Rhode Island, their lawyers said the only legal avenue available to them would be for at least one to move to Massachusetts and live there long enough to obtain a divorce.
"It is an absolutely unfair burden," Ormiston said outside Rhode Island's Supreme Court. "It is a burden no one else is asked to bear, and it is something I will not do."
Lawyers for the women told the Supreme Court the only question to consider was whether Rhode Island could recognize a valid same-sex marriage from another state for the sole purpose of granting a divorce petition.
They stressed the case has no bearing on whether gay couples could get married in Rhode Island.
"You have a valid marriage in the state of Massachusetts," Louis Pulner, an attorney for Chambers, told the justices. "No one is asking the court to address the question of whether such marriages would be valid in Rhode Island."
In September 2006, a Massachusetts judge decided same-sex couples from Rhode Island could marry in Massachusetts because nothing in Rhode Island law specifically banned gay marriage. But the courts and the legislature in Rhode Island have not taken any action to recognize same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts.
Attorney General Patrick Lynch earlier this year issued a nonbinding advisory opinion saying the state would recognize same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts.
The justices did not indicate when they would rule.
Fixed.
This is juat another attempt to gain recognition and public acceptance of homosexual marriages.
Homosexuals could enter into a contractual relationship without shoving their lifestyle down the public’s throat.
“It is an absolutely unfair burden,” Ormiston said outside Rhode Island’s Supreme Court. “It is a burden no one else is asked to bear, and it is something I will not do.”
Unfair burden? How far do they have to move, ten miles?
>>>>Who gets custody of the Pontiac Aztek?<<<<<<<<
I though they drove Mazda Miatas.
Or is that just gay men?
I feel your pain. - not -
Geaux Tigers :)
Next week.........Kentucky Wildcats sucks rocks............
Maybe they could just stop pretending they’re married and call it a day?
Communism advances.
The breakup of a “civil union” could be known as an “uncivilized union”
Then they shouldn't have gotten married in Massachusetts. But then they wouldn't have been able to make their grand political statement and get their 15 minutes of fame, would they?
This is just a back door way to try to get the State to recognize the "marriage" - if they are foolish enough to do the divorce, then they will be construed as having recognized the "marriage".
That was funny....
As long as the probate courts aren’t tied up with a battle over the sex toys.
Not where I come from. Where do you live, anyway?
They should just move to Rhode Island. Their marriage never happened/existed according to R.I.
Mazda Miatas and PT Cruiser convertibles I believe.....
This has been done before : Two men got married in MA, then the returned to their home state and tried to divorce there. Their lawyer described their situation as “legal limbo”, but the home state judge was not sympathetic. He said that as there was no valid marriage according to the laws of that state, then the marriage was null and void. Nonexistent. Most likely this will happen in RI too....Unless the two females find an activist judge willing to ignore the law as it is written in order to create laws more to his/her liking.
It’s really sad when a FedEx driver and a diesel mechanic can’t learn to get along.
Dude ... they’re both lesbomobiles. And absolutely butt-ugly.
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