Gay Divorce Still Legal in California

Staff Writer, May 27, 2009

The recent decision in California, regarding Proposition 8, a statewide bill that bans gay marriage has caused a great deal of confusion. For one year, gay and lesbian couples who lived in the state of California were legally allowed to wed. However, as of November 2008, that right was taken away by a majority vote. The vote was contested in the California Supreme Court and it was upheld that future marriages could not take place in the state, but that those, which had already occurred before November 2008, would still be recognized as legal.

Those who got married before this cutoff date then found themselves wondering if they would be entitled to all of the rights granted to heterosexual couples- including the right to a divorce. According to the California Supreme Court’s decision, a couple that was married before November 2008 can still obtain a divorce.

Many gay and lesbian couples have to resort to trickery to get the divorce that they want- such was the case with a lesbian couple in Oklahoma. The couple had married in Canada, but fooled the divorce judge by only using their initials on the divorce paperwork.