Blogcabin California

Several gay couples I know are planning to go to California to get married now that same sex weddings are legal there combined with the fact that there is no residency requirement to marry. The Los Angeles Times just did a piece cautioning out of state gays to be careful because under existing laws throughout the land, it is much easier to marry than it is to divorce - should things not work out. They cited an example of a Rhode Island couple that married in Massachusetts, but now cannot get a divorce because Rhode Island won’t do it and Massachusetts has a one year residency requirement for divorce. The couple is resigned to the fact that they might be forced to be married forever, even though they don’t want to be married any more.As a point of information, in California you can get married in a day, but it takes a 6 month residency to divorce. A Canadian marriage, like Massachusetts, requires going back and establishing a one year residency before you can undo it.

As gay marriages become more common, we are going to see a grand mess nationally. If people in 48 states can go to California to marry, but then can’t get divorced, lots and lots of problems are going to occur.

Besides all the points raised in the L.A. Times article, here is problem that “acoolerclimate” suggested in a comment to my post Accessing those 1200 federal benefits (III) :  What if a bisexual male goes to California and marries another man and they return to Georgia where their marriage is not recognized. After a few years they break up, but do not want to go back to California to live for the required 6 months to divorce, figuring their marriage was never recognized in Georgia anyway. Imagine that the bisexual partner then meets a woman, falls in love and gets married in Georgia. Is he now a bigamist? If he takes a trip to California, can he be arrested for bigamy when he gets off the plane (assuming his angry ex-spouse has informed the authorities of his flight info, etc).

Finally assume the day comes when either through legislation or a Supreme Court decree, Georgia is forced to recognize same sex marriages. Is that person suddenly a bigamist because of the Court decision or new legislation?