Dallas resident ‘J.B.’ is seeking a divorce from his Massachusetts marriage to ‘H.B.’
We’ll have oh-so-much more on Texas’ big gay divorce cases in Friday’s print edition, but for now we should at least mention that Lambda Legal and the ACLU of Texas have filed a friend-of-the-court brief calling on the state’s high court to grant divorces to two same-sex couples legally married in Massachusetts. The Texas Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in the cases for Nov. 5.
“These two couples are not asking Texas to marry them or to continue living in Texas as a married couple so that they can access the ongoing benefits and obligations Texas grants other legally-married couples,” Lambda Legal staff attorney Paul Castillo said in a release announcing the filing of the brief. “In fact, quite the opposite: the issue here is divorce, not marriage, and it is particularly ironic Texas would deny couples the opportunity to dissolve their marriages through the orderly process of divorce, essentially insisting they stay married while at the same time disdaining those marriages.
“Withholding divorce is a particularly harsh and punitive action for married couples that have made the difficult decision to end their relationship,” Castillo added. “And granting a divorce to same-sex couples does not require that Texas affirm or approve of the marriage. It merely provides for orderly dissolution of the couples’ ongoing obligations and responsibilities while providing legal certainty that these couples can now move on with their lives.”
Read the full brief by going here.