Mediate Michigan

The sad fact is that many gay couples fighting for the right to marry may someday want to divorce. And that’s a whole other battle.

Seven years ago Angelique Naylor and Sabina Daly met in Austin, Texas, fell in love, and moved in together. “We donated to charity, worked, and paid our taxes like everyone else,” Naylor, 39, tells NEWSWEEK. “We also thought it was important to be married before we had a child.” So in 2004 they married and honeymooned in Massachusetts, and soon after adopted Jayden, who is now 4. They shared a business in the then-booming housing market as well as a quiet, upper-middle-class family lifestyle.

But like half of all heterosexual marriages, their relationship started to fall apart. Since Texas didn’t recognize their marriage, the state wouldn’t grant their divorce. The only option to make it official was to establish residency in Massachusetts (while few states have residency requirements for marriage, most require a six-month stay before they grant divorce). “My son is here [in Texas], my mom is here, half of my business is here,” says Naylor. “It made no economic sense, and no emotional sense, to leave.” Last year, inspired by two men who were making headlines by filing for divorce in Dallas, the two women filed their own case. Prior to that, they had unsuccessfully tried mediation and several of their properties went into foreclosure due to difficulties in legally dividing up their shared assets. “This has been emotionally painful, financially painful,” says Naylor. (Daly, through her lawyer, declined to talk to the press.). “It’s the same struggle as any couple—the anger, the grief, the loss. It’s all the same.” A Texas judge agreed, and their divorce was finalized on March 31, 2010.

via Gay Divorce: The Next Big Legal Challenge – Newsweek.com.