Monday, June 27, 2011

Next Boom Industry in New York: Gay Divorce

All those folks celebrating this weekend are in for a rude wake-up call. Not only will gay pre-nups be a hot commodity, get ready for a booming legal industry: Gay divorce.
Wedding planners aren't the only ones riding the gay-marriage gravy train.

Lawyers, too, are expecting a bonanza -- from gay divorce.

"Other than a divorce attorney, no one goes to a wedding hoping the marriage will fail," quipped Manhattan divorce attorney Daniel Clement.

And a gay marriage is no different. Lost in the euphoria of the historic passage of New York's same-sex marriage bill is the inevitability of bitter break-ups.

There will be support claims to resolve, property to divide and custody issues to settle, as with any other divorce.

"The same issues present themselves with same-sex couples: How do we split assets? What do we do with the children?" Clement said. "The law doesn't change merely because you have same-sex partners."

Mere months after Massachusetts passed its same-sex marriage bill in 2004, gay couples began filing for divorce -- sometimes having to use outdated forms that still listed "husband" and "wife."
Now they shall truly have equality. They'll be as miserable as a lot of straight couples.

3 comments:

James Hlavac said...

You guys make me laugh - that's all we wanted: to be as miserable and no more special that you heteros. Is that what you folks were saving us from? Divorce? hahaha. And well, I do know at least 2 dozens gay couples who've been "married" for more years than the combined six marriages of Newt and the Donald. One of the gay couples in the parade are together 61 years, and another 48 -- sounds like true love to me. All is fair now, good. On the other hand, gay divorces in the other few states with gay marriages seem to be way lower than the continued number of hetero marriage breakups. Weird eh?

southernsue said...

yea, and the marriage tax penalty, then the expense of divorce, then if the other catches her/him cheating, oh yea. be careful what you ask for.

lots of straight men and women have lost most everything they worked for through divorce.

so now you can marry. will you please stop parading your vile unatural way through the streets and live quietly like the other married people?

judy lukose said...

I was just thinking that the issue of divorce within the gay community willl force the courts and us lawyers to really be gender nuetral and not just say we are.   I am interested to see case law on all these issues.
Judy Lukose, Esq.
www.LukoseLaw.com