Emerging Legal Issues in Same-Sex Divorces

There is no such thing as “gay marriage.” Rather, it is “straight” marital law that is applied to same-sex couples, with its well-established heteronormative rules of shared assets and debts, potential obligation for postseparation financial support, and marriage-based rules of parentage. While marriage equality is rightly celebrated as a civil rights victory, it has resulted in a host of unanticipated challenges for couples dealing with the break-up of their marital or registered partnership/civil union relationships. This is especially true for recently married couples that lived together for decades as an unmarried couple due to the inability to marry. This chapter describes the recurring challenges faced by same-sex couples seen through the lens of a variety of case examples, as observed by a California family law attorney and mediator who specializes in same-sex dissolutions, and who has been working with the LGBT community for more than thirty years.