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Amsterdam - Gay Dutch couples appear to divorce at a rate of about one percent a year - the same rate as heterosexual married couples, according to government data released on Monday. The Netherlands legalised gay marriage in 2001 - the first country to do so - and the data released on Monday was the first time the government has reported on gay divorce rates. Between April 2001, when gay marriage was legalised, and December 2003 there have been 5 751 gay marriages and 63 divorces, according to figures gathered from city registers. In the same period, there were around...

Gays and lesbians still can't marry in California. But starting today, the more than 26,000 couples registered with the state as domestic partners will have to divorce if they split up. If they have children, they will automatically receive a wide array of parental rights. Community property suddenly applies, just as for married spouses. The changes are part of a law, put on the books by the Legislature and former Gov. Gray Davis in September 2003 but going into effect only now, that greatly expands California's 5-year-old experiment with domestic partnerships. The law's supporters and opponents agree that it makes...

BOSTON Seven months after champagne toasts rang in a new era of gay marriage in Massachusetts, same-sex couples are beginning to share in the less joyous side of matrimony: irreconcilable differences, settlement agreements and divorce. Over the past few months, newlywed same-sex couples have been trickling into probate courts across the state, seeking to renounce the vows they so recently took, filling out forms that still include the traditional "husband" and "wife" references. While opponents of gay marriage are already promising to put a political spin on these swift separations, the divorces are like the thousands of others, involving dry...

Ellen DeGeneres finds a new love There's good news and bad news in Ellen DeGeneres' household. DeGeneres, 46, has broken up with her girlfriend of four years, photographer Alexandra Hedison, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer. But, proving that destruction often leads to new life, she has done so to pursue a romance with 31-year-old Arrested Development star Portia de Rossi, who left her girlfriend, singer Francesca Gregorini ( Ringo Starr's stepdaughter). Oh, the drama. The new couple have VH1's extravaganza Big in '04 to thank for it all. While they first met some nine months ago at a photo shoot, the...

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Less than seven months after same-sex couples began tying the knot in Massachusetts, the state is seeing its first gay divorces. Newlyweds seeking to renounce the vows they so recently took have been trickling into probate courts across the state, filling out obsolete forms that still read "husband" and "wife." Josh Friedes, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Freedom to Marry Coalition, said the rapid divorces are no cause for concern. "It would be wonderful if every marriage lasted until a couple lived to a ripe old age, but unfortunately we know from our heterosexual peers that...

BOSTON (AP) -- Less than seven months after same-sex couples began tying the knot in Massachusetts, the state is seeing its first gay divorces. Newlyweds seeking to renounce the vows they so recently took have been trickling into probate courts across the state, filling out obsolete forms that still read "husband" and "wife." Josh Friedes, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Freedom to Marry Coalition, said the rapid divorces are no cause for concern. "It would be wonderful if every marriage lasted until a couple lived to a ripe old age, but unfortunately we know from our heterosexual peers that all...

BOSTON – Less than seven months after same-sex couples began tying the knot in Massachusetts, the state is seeing its first gay divorces. Advertisement Newlyweds seeking to renounce the vows they so recently took have been trickling into probate courts across the state, filling out obsolete forms that still read "husband" and "wife." Exactly how many same-sex couples are seeking divorces is not clear – nor is it clear whether any gay divorces have become final – because not all counties keep track of which divorce filings are from gays. The first gay divorce case in Suffolk County, which includes...

(CNSNews.com) - Two homosexual advocacy groups and the American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday appealed the case of a lesbian woman who is being denied visitation with the daughter she had with her former partner. Janet Miller-Jenkins is seeking to enforce a court order from a Vermont court that granted her regular visitation with the two-year-old daughter she and her former lover, Lisa Miller-Jenkins, had when they were joined in a Vermont civil union. "My daughter has a right to have access to both of the parents she was born to. I'm in this for her -- she is...

Toronto — A judge granted Canada's first same-sex divorce yesterday, ruling that the Divorce Act's definition of "spouse" is unconstitutional. Madam Justice Ruth Mesbur of Ontario Superior Court gave the divorce to a Toronto lesbian couple whose identities were kept secret. They were married shortly after the Ontario Court of Appeal made same-sex marriages legal in June, 2003. They had been in a relationship for 10 years, but matrimonial harmony lasted less than a week. "We believe this is not just the first gay or lesbian divorce in Canada, but actually the first gay or lesbian divorce in the world,"...

It looks as if two Canadian lesbians will make history in the first same-sex divorce. "The women, identified according to their lawyers' initials as M.M., a 41-year-old born in Toronto, and J.H., a 61-year-old born in Ottawa, were married on June 18, 2003, one week after the Ontario Court of Appeal legalized same-sex marriage in the province," the Associated Press reported today. Yet the couple split only five days after the wedding ... after being together for almost 10 years, said J.H.'s lawyer, Julie Hannaford. "This is the first same-sex divorce case in Canada to our knowledge," M.M.'s lawyer, Martha...

TORONTO (CP) - Barely a year after an Ontario court gave its blessing to same-sex marriage, a lesbian couple is trying to untie the knot in what critics dismissed Wednesday as little more than a judicial stunt to test the limits of Canada's divorce laws. The pair, identified in court documents only as J.H. and M.M., were together for five years prior to their decision to get married last June, but were separated just five days later - two weeks after the Ontario Court of Appeal legalized same-sex marriages. "It's clearly a set-up case after five days where they are...

They've lasted considerably longer than the 55 hours pop diva Britney Spears managed to stay married, but a same-sex couple who tied the knot in San Francisco three months ago already are seeking to dissolve their union. The couple's breakup after more than 10 years together puts the spotlight for the first time on the flip side of same-sex marriage: divorce. ``I would love to think that gay people will do a better job with marriage than heterosexuals,'' said Frederick Hertz, an Oakland-based attorney and co-author of ``A Legal Guide for Gay and Lesbian Couples'' who represents one member of...

<p>The ruling, apparently the first of its kind in Massachusetts and one of the first in the country, came from an Essex Probate and Family Court judge who found that the companion decisions by the SJC gave him the authority to end the civil union of two gay men.</p>

Same Sex Couple, Married in San Francisco Last Month, Goes Through Nasty Divorce - SAN FRANCISCO — A gay couple, married in last month's frenzy of same-sex weddings in San Francisco, has filed for what is believed to be the country's first same-sex divorce. Lawyers for the newlyweds, identified only as John and Gary, said the couple cited "irreconcilable differences" as grounds for the divorce. The couple appeared outside city hall late Tuesday afternoon with their attorneys, who spoke to a gathering of reporters. "While both our clients entered into matrimony with the highest of hopes for a long and...