When Gay Marriage Goes Wrong

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Sarah & Tony's Wedding

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uploaded by tonypreece

Larissa Chism and Tara Ranzy from Indiana, USA travelled to Toronto, Canada in 2005 for their wedding.

Four years on and they have filed for divorce. Nothing strange in that. It was a pretty simple divorce with nothing to fight over. Until that was, an Indiana court official noticed that the names on the divorce petition both belonged to women.

As Indiana does not allow or recognise same sex marriage, it cannot therefore grand a divorce, as legally their marriage does not exist in the state.

Meanwhile, travelling back to Toronto to file divorce is not quite so simple either. For laws there require one or both of the divorcees to live there for at least 12 months before filing.

If either wants to remarry in Indiana that will be perfectly legal (as long as the marriage is with a man) given the gay marriage is not recognised. However, should they travel to a place where gay marriage is permitted they may then be guilty of adultery.

The unhappy couple have declined to comment when asked by the Toronto Star, but maybe a solution is in sight. Earlier in the year a New Jersey judge granted a divorce ruled that same-sex marriages performed in other states are recognized in New Jersey for the purposes of divorce.