After two years of battling through state and federal law, a lesbian couple have finally been granted a divorce, reports Star-Telegram.
But last week, Brooke Powell and Cori Jo Long of Tarrant County, Texas, were finally granted a divorce before state District Judge William Harris.
Officials of the court say this is the first gay divorce to occur in Tarrant County, and one of only a handful in Texas.
The US Supreme Court ruled on June 26th that same-sex marriage is a right under the Constitution. This ruling prompted Tarrant County judges to allow the divorce.
Cori Jo Long said:
“It’s been a roller coaster […] Honestly, I didn’t think it would happen.”
The couple married in New Hampshire in 2010, but when they applied for a divorce, the request was denied by Judge Harris.
“It was a feeling, initially, of being invisible,” Powell said. “There was no resolution. But I always had faith in the legal system that this day would come.”
Following the Supreme Court ruling, Harris has now granted them a divorce.
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Their struggle highlights a disparity in law between heterosexual and homosexual couples. As Sonya Carillo, Long’s lawyer says:
“If this had been a divorce between a heterosexual couple […] it would have literally taken 61 days […] But for them being of the same sex, this would have been over long ago.”
Austin attorney Karen Langsley specializes in same sex splits, argues that judges must aim to apply law in a gender-neutral manner.
“Who knows whether [state lawmakers] want to or have the will to make the family code gender-neutral? […]They could try, but the Supreme Court said the state’s sodomy law was illegal in 2003 and they still have that one on the books.”
Following their case, Long says she thinks it will now be easier for other gay couples to divorce in Texas:
“Now it will just be everyday life […] People get married and people get divorced. The LGBT community will have legal protection.”
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