Maryland High Court Considers Allowing Same-Sex Divorce

Maryland’s highest court is considering whether same sex married couples can be separated in the State. Maryland presently does not permit exact same sex couples to marry– that’s clear. The concern is whether the State can then extend that prohibition to keep exact same sex couples from divorcing as well.

As some background, frequently times gay couples staying in a State where same sex marital relationship is not enabled will go to another more modern State in order to get wed. This produces certain tax and monetary intricacies for the couple, but they’re willing to live with it for the sake of love. The genuine problems manifest if the couple later should divorce. In a State such as Maryland where the guidelines are inconsistent, one judge may give the separation while another may not. If the couple is not permitted to separation, they’re stuck in a very uncomfortable limbo. They can either remain married– which means they can’t wed anyone else, and are still financially accountable for one another; or they could transfer to a State that does permit same-sex separation for long enough to obtain territory because State– which normally takes six months. Those are expensive proposals. Not everyone can afford to uproot their lives and transfer to an additional State.

California and the District of Columbia have just recently enacted laws to relieve this issue a minimum of for couples wed in their territories. California enacted the Domestic Partnership Equality Act in January 2012, which enables same-sex couples married in California but living somewhere else to obtain separated in California without needing to move there. DC passed a bill which does much the same in March of 2012. But those laws just resolve part of the problem, as not all exact same sex couples were married in California and DC.

States that do not recognize same sex marriage should at least permit those couples to separation in their States. The negative consequences are too great otherwise.

Besides, doesn’t it appear just a little bit of too ironic that a state which says it does not think in exact same sex marriage is requiring exact same sex couples to remain wed?