OK, kiddo! Here are all the fantastically amazing posts tagged with Same-sex divorce

Gay Spouses Not That Different From Straight Ones

November 9th, 2009

All kinds of families are great!

Same-sex couples are virtually identical to opposite-sex couples when it comes to age, income, and child rearing according to census data released in the United States this month.

A study conducted at UCLA analyzed the data for nearly 150,000 gay couples to compare how they fare in comparison to their straight counterparts—taking into account gay couples who were legally married as well as those that still referred to each other as being married even if equal marriage rights were not legal in their state. The results show that gay married couples are 52 years old on average, earn a combined household income of $91,558, and have children 31 percent of the time. This compares to straight couples who are 50 years old on average, earn a household income of $95,075, and have children 43 percent of the time.

Gary Gates, a UCLA researcher who compiled the results, said that these numbers show that gay and straight families aren’t as different as lobbyists claim:

Most proponents of traditional marriage will say that when you allow these couples to marry, you are going to change the fundamental nature of marriage by decoupling it from procreation. Clearly [same-sex couples] are not decoupling child rearing from marriage.

Just goes to show you, gay people really aren’t all that different from straight people. Except for our extrasensory abilities and ability to wither your crops by blinking, that is.

Your Canadian Gay Marriage Is Final

September 28th, 2009

That should lower the divorce rate.

Canada’s pretty cool. No matter who you are or where you’re from, you can make your marriage commitments official up here—including gay couples from countries where same-sex marriages are not recognized. Just, maybe, don’t expect to get divorced if things don’t work out.

Divorces in Canada are, in fact, a legal impossibility unless at least one half of the couple has lived here for over a year. This is presumably because, unlike marriages, divorces are costly legal ordeals involving joint property transfer that need to be dealt with in local jurisdictions. That’s a problem for same-sex couples who can’t get divorced in their local jurisdiction because their marriage isn’t recognized there in the first place.

It’s quite a pickle, really. Luckily there’s an elegant solution: Legalize equal marriage rights everywhere!

NJ Issues Gay Divorces; Still No Marriage

February 9th, 2009

But why are they asking a hotel receptionist, anyway?

Here’s another reason why the whole concept of separate civil unions instead of same-sex marriage is a terrible idea: New Jersey.

New Jersey happily recognises same-sex marriages performed out-of-state, but in-state, only civil unions can be issued for gay couples. Well, now a New Jersey couple who married in Canada in 2004 wants a divorce so one half can re-marry. Canada won’t issue a divorce because they aren’t citizens; New Jersey, until now, wouldn’t do it because they could only dissolve gay civil unions, not marriages; and, of course, Canada won’t let the other half re-marry if they don’t get a proper divorce first. What a mess!

Enter Judge Mary Jacobson, who ruled that the couple should be able to get a divorce within New Jersey because the state has a history of divorcing foreign marriages. This ruling comes much to the chagrin of The Attorney General’s Office, which had argued that only civil union dissolutions should be allowed for same-sex couples in-state, even if they were fully married, not civil-unioned. The argument resolved around the idea that allowing same-sex divorce would eventually lead to same-sex marriage.

So, there you go. Civil unions have become entangled in the long tentacles of the law, the state is arguing that divorce leads to gay marriage, and we’re now left with this fun fact: In New Jersey, same-sex couples can’t get married—but they’ll be happy to divorce you!