Iowa's Highest Court Institutes Gay Marriage; Vermont's Legislature Is Well On the Way to the Same Goal; New York Grants First Same-Sex Divorce

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the EconomyWow, there have been quite a few developments on the gay marriage front - today, yesterday, and this past week. As Vermont moves closer to becoming, possibly, the first state to create gay marriage by legislative enactment, now that its House has joined the Senate in passing a bill that would permit gay and lesbian couples

Massachusetts House Joins Senate In Voting To Repeal 1913 Law

The House voted overwhelmingly today to repeal the 1913 law. Now that both the Senate and the House have passed the bill, the bill will go to Governor Patrick, who is expected to sign it. As a result of the repeal of the old statute, gay and lesbian couples residing in other states will now be permitted to marry in Massachusetts even if their home states would not permit them to marry in their

Massachusetts Legislature Moves Toward Equality for Gay and Lesbian Couples

Despite the fact that the Massachusetts Senate recently passed Senate Bill 800, which would repeal the 1913 law that prohibits non-resident gay and lesbian couples from marrying in Massachusetts unless their home state also would recognize their marriage, the House has yet to take up and pass the bill, and has until July 31 before its current session ends. See the New England Blade's most recent

More On Same-Sex Marriage Recognition in Other States

It's hard to keep up, but here are two more recent articles from Findlaw's Writ on issues related to same-sex marriage. These both deal with issues regarding the legal treatment of same-sex marriages in states that do not have same-sex marriage:*The Virginia Supreme Court Enforces Vermont's Custody and Visitation Order Regarding a Same-Sex Couple's Child: Why an Anti-Same-Sex-Marriage State

New York Trial Judge Will Allow Lesbian Couple to Divorce There

One trial court judge in New York has just decided that a lesbian couple married in Canada can indeed divorce in New York. See New York Divorce Law Blog: Lesbian Couple Married In Canada Can Divorce In New York and for a bit more detail on the case see GLBT Couples Law: NY Court Allows Same-Sex Divorce to Proceed. The judge in this case relied on a recent decision from the New York appellate

New York Appellate Division Recognizes Canadian Gay Marriage

Thanks to this recent New York Divorce and Family Law Blog post for reporting on the recent New York Appellate Division (intermediate level state appellate court) case of Martinez v. County of Monroe, which recognized a same-sex marriage of a lesbian couple which had been performed in Canada, and gave it effect in New York, despite the fact that New York, like all U.S. states save Massachusetts,

Same-Sex Divorce Challenges the Legal System, Washington Post Reports

The Washington Post just published the following article, Same-Sex Divorce Challenges the Legal System - washingtonpost.com, by Dafna Linzer about the peculiar problems same-sex couples face, both here in Massachusetts and elsewhere, when they split. Given the topic, the article naturally had a big focus on Massachusetts, and it includes quotes from interviews of family law specialists here who

Joanna Grossman on Rhode Island Supreme Court's Denial of Same-Sex Divorce

For an excellent article critiquing the majority decision of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, in Chambers v. Ormiston, which ruled that a lesbian couple, married in Massachusetts, cannot get a divorce in Rhode Island's Family Court, for lack of jurisdiction, see Hofstra Law Professor Joanna Grossman's findlaw article of today, "The Rhode Island Supreme Court Denies a Divorce to a Same-Sex Couple

Rhode Island Supreme Court Decides Lesbian Couple, Married in Massachusetts, May Not Divorce in Rhode Island

The Rhode Island Supreme Court has just ruled that the Rhode Island courts may not grant a divorce to a lesbian couple married as a same-sex couple in Massachusetts, but now living in Rhode Island (see below). The high court found that its state's Family Court has no jurisdiction to grant the divorce, based on the fact that Rhode Island does not itself recognize this "same-sex marriage" as a "

Amici Briefs in the Rhode Island case-Having married in Massachusetts, may a lesbian couple now get divorced in Rhode Island?

I just found the following amici curiae briefs for the Rhode Island case, available on the website of the Gay and Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), including GLAD's own brief, authored in part by Mary Bonauto, who was lead counsel in the Goodridge case; another brief by various conflict of laws, civil rights and family law professors, with California's Barbara Cox, Erwin Chemerinsky and

Having married in Massachusetts, may a lesbian couple now get divorced in Rhode Island?

The Rhode Island Supreme Court is about to decide whether its courts can approve the divorce of a lesbian couple who were joined in marriage in Massachusetts three years ago. This case appears to be the first case in which a state outside Massachusetts has had to deal with the issue of whether it can grant a divorce to a couple previously married in a same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, even