The current situation where some states allow gay marriage, and some states (vigorously) don’t is causing some interesting problems.
Take the case of two men who were legally married in Massachusetts, but then moved to Texas, and now they have decided to split up. The only wrinkle is that Texas won’t allow them to divorce. You would think that people who are against gay marriage would love nothing more than to help a married gay couple divorce, but the Texas Attorney General stepped in personally to stop the split.
If they can’t divorce in Texas, then their only recourse is to move back to Mass., wait a year, then file for divorce. The couple claims that they only want to be able to split up without all this cost and time, as any heterosexual couple would have been able to do.
What’s ironic about this is that opposition to gay divorce may cause state constitutional amendments against gay marriage to be found to be in violation of the right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment. In fact, a judge in Texas has ruled exactly that way. On appeal, maybe this will make its way all the way up to the US Supreme Court.
Of course, it is also ironic that in order to avoid going back to Mass., the couple in question may have to spend a bunch of time in Washington DC. I guess what we really have is equal protection to be able to be screwed around by the law!
