For gay couple, divorce ruling is bittersweet
Posted Friday, Oct. 02, 2009 at http://www.star-telegram.com/dallas_news/story/1656715.html
A Dallas judge clears way for gay divorce
BY DAVE MONTGOMERY AND ANNA TINSLEY
AUSTIN — What some have called a “day of victory” has become a heartbreaking conclusion to the couple whose divorce is now at the center of the gay marriage debate.
On Thursday, J.B.’s divorce petition resulted in a stunning Dallas court ruling that questioned the constitutionality of Texas’ gay-marriage ban and produced an outcry from the state’s Republican leadership.
But to J.B., as he identifies himself, the ruling by Dallas Judge Tena Callahan was less a sweeping victory for gay rights but a sad end to his three-year-old marriage.
“Some have called for this to be a day of victory or a cause for celebration,” J.B. said in a statement released by his attorney. “It is actually a day of great personal sadness as a chapter to my life ends.
“This is the common ground on which I stand with any person who has faced the end of their marriage.”
Callahan ruled that the state’s gay-marriage ban unconstitutionally prohibits same-sex parties who were married in one state from getting a divorce in Texas. J.B. and his partner, H.B., were married in Massachusetts in 2006 after it became the first state to recognize same sex marriages.
Callahan, a former family law attorney who was elected as Dallas’ 302nd District Court judge in 2006, held that the Texas ban violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee to equal protection of the law. In her one-page ruling, Callahan pegged the decision “on the limited issue” of whether Texas courts can grant divorces to couples legally married to other jurisdictions.
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