Tarrant County Family Court Justice William Harris
A Tarrant County judge granted the county’s first same-sex divorce yesterday (Thursday, Aug. 20).
Family Court Judge William Harris presided over the case, a year after Brooke Powell and Cori Jo Long first filed for a divorce in the state. The couple wed in New Hampshire in 2010 but filed for divorce last year.
Harris initially threw out the case since the state did not recognize same-sex marriages at the time.
The couple sought a divorce and not to void the marriage, because voiding a marriage “basically says it never existed,” Long’s attorney Sonya Carrillo told CBS 11.“Any rights and duties, responsibilities, benefits that you would have under the law from your marriage are gone. Just like it never happened.”
Texas began recognizing same-sex marriages following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision in June legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.