Full Equal rights!

[Virtual_Burlesque]

Earlier this summer, one of the earliest couples to obtain a Canadian Gay Marriage, was seeking a another first, with some technical difficulties.

Lesbian couple seeking country's first same-sex divorce
Thu, 22 Jul 2004

(Excerpt)

Two women, identified only as M.M. and J.H., were married in Ontario on June 18, 2003, a week after Ontario's Court of Appeal legalized same-sex marriage.

They separated five days later.

However, the Divorce Act, which is federal legislation, defines spouses as "either of a man or a woman who are married to each other."

Toronto lawyer Martha McCarthy and her client, M.M. have asked the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to issue an order that the federal definition of spouse under the Divorce Act is unconstitutional. She said the federal government is due to respond next week.

"It's unconstitutional to give straight people the freedom to divorce, and not gays and lesbians," said McCarthy.

She said she has written to the federal government asking it not to fight their court challenge.

Federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler said Wednesday he believes if gays and lesbians have the right to marry, they should have the equal right to divorce.

"In September, there could be gay marriage and gay divorce in the province of Ontario," said McCarthy.

Unless I suffered an auditory hallucination, there should be news announcing the first successful Gay Divorce in a few days.

Keep watching Reuters Oddly Enough.

 

[R. Richard]

Five days???

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Five days???

No, what's sad is that seems long compared to heterosexuals.


Remember that this is the record short.

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

Homosexual couple... the struggle for the right to marry... marry... less than a week later they want to divorce.

Heh.

 

[minsue]

I was wondering when they'd get around to figuring out the laws on same-sex divorce. It seemed to easy to think it would simply automatically be attached to the laws legalizing same-sex marraige. Legislatures are legislatures wherever they are and they're not known for common sense.

 

[minsue]

Homosexual couple... the struggle for the right to marry... marry... less than a week later they want to divorce.

Heh.

See the post above yours, Joe. Luc just about said it all there.

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

Originally posted by minsue
See the post above yours, Joe. Luc just about said it all there.

Nah, not all. Took seventeen years for my parents to divorce. Took these jokers five days.

Heh.

 

[minsue]

Nah, not all. Five days.

Heh.

As opposed to the number of straight couples that don't even make it 48 hours.

Your arrogant little Hehs over a couple's divorce are unbelievably irritating, Joe. At the moment all I can think is that I can't wait to see you when your life doesn't go as planned, Joe. Maybe that'll wipe that little smirk off for a moment.

Compassion is apparently not logical.

Fuck it. Now I'm getting nasty. Good night.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Nah, not all. Took seventeen years for my parents to divorce. Took these jokers five days.

Heh.

I said record low. The record high is yet to come. Considering lesbian couple rates and their average comparison to heterosexuals and gay males, the record high should be equal to the unto death high of heterosexuals (lesbians on average stay together longer than both gay men and heterosexuals on average).

I by no means said all. And I believe Darva Conger, J. Lo, and Brittney Spears all brought new meaning to "these jokers".

Still, I understand, it is sad, but predictable.

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

Originally posted by minsue
As opposed to the number of straight couples that don't even make it 48 hours.

Your arrogant little Hehs over a couple's divorce are unbelievably irritating, Joe. At the moment all I can think is that I can't wait to see you when your life doesn't go as planned, Joe. Maybe that'll wipe that little smirk off for a moment.

Compassion is apparently not logical.

Fuck it. Now I'm getting nasty. Good night.

Britney Spears got married to some buddy of hers for 55 hours. I found their annullment funny... because its a somewhat novel amusement. That these people are not celebrities and are gay doesn't really make much of a difference to me (nor should it).

I'm not going to mark their grand achievement by the ruler of straight couples and how long some of their marriages last... that's ridiculous. I'm going to mark it by a little common sense and say "They were married for five days, following years of struggle to even allow that sort of thing... that's funny".

You don't have to like it, but I've seen waaaaaaaaaaaay more insensitive shit than chuckling at a genuine novelty on the boards and I don't see you waving any protest signs over that.

Maybe my life will turn out to not meet my expectations (which are, admittedly, high)... but I do alright (not that I see how that's relavent, but I guess I don't have to either).

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Britney Spears got married to some buddy of hers for 55 hours. I found their annullment funny... because its a somewhat novel amusement. That these people are not celebrities and are gay doesn't really make much of a difference to me (nor should it).

I'm not going to mark their grand achievement by the ruler of straight couples and how long some of their marriages last... that's ridiculous. I'm going to mark it by a little common sense and say "They were married for five days, following years of struggle to even allow that sort of thing... that's funny".

You don't have to like it, but I've seen waaaaaaaaaaaay more insensitive shit than chuckling at a genuine novelty on the boards and I don't see you waving any protest signs over that.

Maybe my life will turn out to not meet my expectations (which are, admittedly, high)... but I do alright (not that I see how that's relavent, but I guess I don't have to either).

i saw what you meant. Minsue was just tired.

And no one's life meets expectations. Even the one's expecting the worst get surprised by a fortunate turn of events. Pretty much all anyone can expect is that there will be a period of cognition followed by a cessation. And even that is stretching it.

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

Originally posted by Lucifer_Carroll
And no one's life meets expectations.

Mine's doing fine, so far. Have to see, I've only got things planned until I'm 30, so there's time for failure--I suppose.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Mine's doing fine, so far. Have to see, I've only got things planned until I'm 30, so there's time for failure--I suppose.

All i'm saying is God or your deity or non-deity of choice always throws a curveball for better or for worse. You may expect one thing and get something worse or better or just different. Perhaps a new encounter, a hobby, a loss, a gain, whatever.

It's an entropic world out there and things never go perfectly according to plan. That's not the same as bad.

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

Originally posted by Lucifer_Carroll
All i'm saying is God or your deity or non-deity of choice always throws a curveball for better or for worse. You may expect one thing and get something worse or better or just different. Perhaps a new encounter, a hobby, a loss, a gain, whatever.

It's an entropic world out there and things never go perfectly according to plan. That's not the same as bad.

So long as one's expectations aren't too specific, I suppose one can entirely meet them.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

So long as one's expectations aren't too specific, I suppose one can entirely meet them.

I don't know. Even then, it always seems like life has a few curveballs in store. It's one of it's biggest charms.

 

[gauchecritic]

When they get it sorted I wouldn't be surprised if grounds for divorce for same sex couples were to be found entirely too easy.

Assuming that consumation = penetrative vaginal intercourse.

(also assuming that penetrative has the same linguistic root (pun noted) as penis)

Gauche

 

[McKenna]

Has anyone considered that this couple divorced for political reasons? To fight the laws that prevent divorce for homosexual couples?

If they fought for legalized gay marriage, it stands to reason they'd fight for gay rights on all fronts, so why not tackle the divorce issues next, since conveniently, they were just (finally) allowed to marry.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Marriages fail sometimes. In this case, I think mcKenna is probably right. Activists on the edge of the fight for equal rights will not usually be happy with one small success, but will press on to air other grievances.

If you can be married, but cannot get divorced, then you have a major inequality. In efect, the policy is reduced to you can get married if you are gay, but once you do it's for life. Period. That standard is not applied to het couples.

It is possible they got married, specifically to challenge the system to come clean on all issues related to gay marriage. Activists have done much stranger things.

-Colly

 

[Colleen Thomas]

TORONTO (AFP) - A court in Canada has granted what is believed to be the world's first same sex divorce to a lesbian couple, barely a year after the country gave the green light for gays and lesbians to wed.

A landmark ruling Monday by Judge Ruth Mesbur of the Ontario Supreme Court found that the definition of a spouse in the country's marital laws was unconstitutional.

Canadian law currently specifies that only a couple, defined as a man and a woman may seek divorce.

The two women, who were not identified in court documents other than as "M.M." and "J.H." tied the knot on June 18, 2003, a week after Ontario's court of Appeal cleared the way for gay marriage in Canada's most populous province.

"The definition of a spouse is unconstitutional, inoperative and of no force and effect," Mesbur said in her decision.

Martha McCarthy, who represented one of the women, said "we believe that this is not just the first gay or lesbian divorce in Canada, but actually the first gay or lesbian divorce in the world."

Canada has emerged as one of the most liberal nations regarding civil same-sex marriage, which is permitted in three provinces, Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.

The federal government has asked the Supreme Court to rule on whether the definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman violates Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

A ruling is not expected until October, and Judge Mesbur refused to delay the case until then.

There ya go Burley.


-Colly

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

... A ruling is not expected until October, and Judge Mesbur refused to delay the case until then.

There ya go Burley. -Colly

What!

No heming, no hawing, no putzing around trying to toss it to a higher court?

Just, discover a legal discrepancy and fix it?

Gosh! Those Canadians are far more avant-garde than we ever suspected!

 

[Edward Teach]

Has anyone considered that this couple divorced for political reasons? To fight the laws that prevent divorce for homosexual couples?

If they fought for legalized gay marriage, it stands to reason they'd fight for gay rights on all fronts, so why not tackle the divorce issues next, since conveniently, they were just (finally) allowed to marry.

What Mckenna said.

Ed

 

[sweetnpetite]

Homosexual couple... the struggle for the right to marry... marry... less than a week later they want to divorce.

Heh.

Two words-

Britney Spears.

 

[sweetnpetite]

As opposed to the number of straight couples that don't even make it 48 hours.

Your arrogant little Hehs over a couple's divorce are unbelievably irritating, Joe. At the moment all I can think is that I can't wait to see you when your life doesn't go as planned, Joe. Maybe that'll wipe that little smirk off for a moment.

Compassion is apparently not logical.

Fuck it. Now I'm getting nasty. Good night.

Is it wrong how much I love this post?

 

[gauchecritic]

Is it wrong how much I love this post?

Yes, yes it is.

originally posted by Colly

In efect, the policy is reduced to you can get married if you are gay, but once you do it's for life. Period. That standard is not applied to het couples.

It's quite possible that I am unbelievably out of touch but with regard to a church wedding (in the eyes of God) hets only get one shot too. Everything else (except til death they do part) is bigamous.

Gauche

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Yes, yes it is.



It's quite possible that I am unbelievably out of touch but with regard to a church wedding (in the eyes of God) hets only get one shot too. Everything else (except til death they do part) is bigamous.

Gauche

Depends on the Church. The angelican Church was founded primarily cause the pope wouldn't let henery get another divorce. the russian orthodox church has the same roots.

Most moderate faiths accept that divorces happen. Of course those who buy into a more conservative dogma may believe you are entierly correct.

-Colly