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Same sex marriage pioneers split up

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by poindexter, Jul 21, 2006.

  1. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    [​IMG]


    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060721/ap_on_re_us/gay_marriage_separation
    Thu Jul 20, 10:35 PM ET

    BOSTON - The lesbian couple whose lawsuit led to legal same-sex marriage in Massachusetts have announced they have separated.

    "Julie and Hillary Goodridge are amicably living apart," Mary Breslauer, a local political consultant, said Thursday night on their behalf. Breslauer declined to comment on how long they had been separated or whether the couple planned to divorce.

    The Goodridges were among seven gay couples whose lawsuit helped thrust Massachusetts into the center of a nationwide debate on gay marriage. The state's Supreme Judicial Court issued its narrow 4-3 ruling in November 2003 in their favor — saying gays and lesbians had a right under the state constitution to wed.

    The Goodridges were married May 17, 2004, the first day same-sex marriages became legal under the court ruling, by a Unitarian Universalist minister. Their daughter, Annie, now 10, served as ring-bearer and flower girl.

    Now, Breslauer said, for Annie's sake, the Goodridges want privacy.

    The child figured prominently in the Goodridges' case. When Julie Goodridge gave birth by cesarean section, there were complications. Hillary Goodridge, at the time having no legal relationship with mother or child, said she was barred several times from seeing her daughter and partner.

    "Even though their number one priority was their daughter," Breslauer said, "marriage makes her also their legal obligation. Their daughter is more protected because they are married."

    Julie Goodridge declined to comment, saying Breslauer was the family's acting spokeswoman. Hillary Goodridge did not return a telephone message left at a business listing Thursday night.

    "The plaintiff couple in this case are real people with real lives. They're not immune from life's ups and downs," Breslauer said. "Certainly over the course of time there will be same sex couples that separate just as happens in other marriages."
     
  2. DisembodiedOwlHead

    DisembodiedOwlHead Active Member

    "Julie and Hillary Goodridge are amicably living apart,"

    Yeah, that always happens like that ...
     
  3. Shaggy

    Shaggy Guest

    Any way you cut it, this doesn't look good for the cause.

    And I'm a very big proponent of legalizing gay marriage. And no, I'm not gay, and yes, I am married.
     
  4. Why?
    A couple that's been together for 20 years split up.
    Stop the presses.
     
  5. Idaho

    Idaho Active Member

    It happens.
     
  6. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    Half of straight marriages fail. Why would it be any different for gay and lesbian couples?
     
  7. Pastor

    Pastor Active Member

    It means nothing to the "cause." Sure, some Christo-fascists will use this as ammo. But it can only be argued if there was never a heterosexual marriage ending in divorce.
     
  8. farmerjerome

    farmerjerome Active Member

    That's what I thought, except I read that there were several marriges that day. The divorce rate is still going to be better than same-sex couples.
     
  9. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    Reminds me of the anti same sex marriage crowd who decry that it attacks "the sanctity of marriage".

    Yeah, like us heteros have done a bang-up job with the institution.
     
  10. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    They're ON A BREAK!!!! [/Ross Gellar; not that I've ever watched Friends before]
     
  11. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    "Why shouldn't they be as unhappy as everybody else?"

    Kinky Friedman on why he's not against gay marriage.
     
  12. Columbo

    Columbo Active Member

    Huh?
     
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