Divorce of same-sex couples

Legal status of same-sex unions
Marriage
Performed

Argentina
Australia
Austria*
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
Colombia
Costa Rica+
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Iceland
Ireland
Luxembourg
Malta
Mexico:
· 12 states & CDMX
Netherlands1
New Zealand2
Norway
Portugal
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Taiwan+
United Kingdom3
United States4
Uruguay

Recognized
  1. Not performed in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten
  2. Neither performed nor recognized in Niue, Tokelau or the Cook Islands
  3. Neither performed nor recognized in Northern Ireland, the dependency of Sark or six of the fourteen overseas territories
  4. Neither performed nor recognized in American Samoa or many tribal jurisdictions with the exception of federal recognition benefits
  5. When performed in Mexican states that have legalized same-sex marriage
  6. When performed in the Netherlands proper
  7. If performed before 1 June 2018
  8. Registration schemes open in all jurisdictions except Hualien County, Penghu County, Taitung County and Yunlin County

* Not yet in effect
+ Automatic deadline set by judicial body for same-sex marriage to become legal

LGBT portal

The extension of civil marriage, union, and domestic partnership rights to same-sex couples in various jurisdictions can raise legal issues upon dissolution of these unions that are not experienced by opposite-sex couples, especially if law of their residence or nationality does not have same-sex marriage or partnerships.

Conflict of laws

In jurisdictions where same-sex unions are not possible, also divorce or annulment is often not possible, while general conflict of law rules sometimes exclude divorce in the jurisdiction where the marriage was celebrated.

In some jurisdictions divorce is possible, even if marriage is not possible. They are listed below:

JurisdictionComment
ArubaMarriages from the Netherlands only[1]
Israel[2]

United States

The federal government's denial of recognition to same-sex marriages before the 2013 United States v. Windsor case meant that assets transferred in a divorce settlement were treated as gifts.[3] Before the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges case, couples in same-sex marriages (with some exceptions) could generally obtain a divorce only in jurisdictions that recognized same-sex marriages.[4] Some same-sex couples brought civil suits to end their marriages in states that denied them access to divorce; civil suits cost more.[3]

Same-sex couples attempting to divorce in Texas while it did not recognize the validity of same-sex marriages met with different results. Two cases went before the Texas Supreme Court;[5] the Court declined to hear one[6] and said it had no jurisdiction to decide the other.[7]

A Florida couple who had legally married in Massachusetts, Keiba Lynn Shaw and Mariama Changamire Shaw, challenged Florida's ban on same-sex marriages in order to divorce.[8] After their petition was dismissed by the trial court, they appealed,[9] and the Family Law Section of the Florida Bar moved to file an amicus brief in favor of the right to divorce by same-sex spouses.[10] In 2015, two Florida couples who had been married in Massachusetts — first Danielle and Krista Brandon-Thomas,[11] then the Shaws[12] — were allowed to divorce.

When Delaware and Minnesota legalized same-sex marriage in May 2013, they gave their respective state courts the authority to conduct divorce proceedings in cases where a same-sex couple married in the state but neither party currently resided in a state that recognized their marriage.[13][14]

Divorce rates

Belgium

Between 2004 and 2009, the average annual divorce rate for all homosexual marriages was almost 2% (the total rate of divorce over those 5 years was 11%) Also between 2004 and 2009, lesbian divorce rates were nearly double of those of gay men.[15]

Denmark

As of 1997, the same-sex partnership divorce rate was significantly lower than that of heterosexual couples in Denmark. The vast majority of gay marriages in Denmark are male-male. Fourteen (14) percent of these end in divorce, compared to 23 percent of female marriages. The higher rate for lesbians (almost double), is consistent with data showing that women initiate most of the heterosexual divorces in Denmark.[16]

Netherlands

In the Netherlands, slightly more marriages between women are recorded than between men: between 2006-2011 on average 690 and 610 per year respectively.

The lesbian divorce rate is much higher than the divorce rate between men: in the same period on average 100 women and 45 men divorced per year (i.e., Lesbian divorce rate = 14%, Gay Male divorce rate = 7%).[17]

A study tracking married couples over a 10 year span found lesbian marriages were most likely to end in divorce. Of the 580 lesbian couples who were married in 2005, 30% were divorced ten years later compared to 18% for heterosexual couples and 15% for gay male couples.[18]

Norway and Sweden

A study on short-term same-sex registered partnerships in Norway and Sweden found that divorce rates were 50% lower for same-sex couples than opposite-sex marriages,[19] and that unions of lesbians are considerably less stable, or more dynamic, than unions of gay men.[20]

In the above study, lesbians divorce risks were 10% higher than for gay men (Table 4).

United Kingdom

The divorce rate of same-sex couples within 29 months of the introduction of legally binding civil partnerships was slightly less than one percent in the United Kingdom.[21]

As of 2013, lesbian couples were twice as likely to initiate actions to end legally recognized partnerships as compared to gay men.[22] in 2016, married female couples were approximately 2-1/2 times more likely to divorce than male couples.[23]

According to Office for National Statistics, divorce rate of heterosexual couple is at its lowest since 1971 in England and Wales. The divorce rate for same-sex couples increased in 2016 and 2017,[23][24] which the Office for National Statistics explained as a likely result of the fact that same-sex marriages have only been legal since 2014.[24]

United States

Massachusetts, the first U.S. state to allow same-sex marriage, does not track how many of the divorces in the state are between same-sex couples.[25] A 2011 study for states with available data initially reported that the dissolution rates for same-sex couples were slightly lower on average (on average, 1.1% of all same-sex couples were said to divorce each year, ranging from 0% to 1.8% in various jurisdictions) than divorce rates of different-sex couples (2% of whom divorce annually).[26] The Washington Post retracted a headline about this report because the study had incorrectly calculated the percentage due to an error in capturing when the same-sex marriages began. As a result, the corrected findings show a 2% divorce rate for same-sex couples — the same as opposite-sex couples. More accurate statistics will be available as time passes.[27]

Some studies have shown that lesbian committed relationships do not last longer than gay male committed relationships.[28]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Case BM9542" (in Dutch). Court of first instance of Aruba. 5 March 2008. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
  2. ↑ Lior, Ilan (3 December 2012). "Court grants divorce to gay couple for first time in Israeli history". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
  3. 1 2 Ellis, Blake (13 May 2013). "The high cost of same-sex divorce". CNN Money. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
  4. ↑ "Tips on Avoiding Same-Sex Divorce Complications". The Huffington Post. 13 May 2013. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
  5. ↑ Rozen, Miriam (17 December 2012). "Tex Parte Blog: Lawyer in two same-sex divorce cases awaits Texas Supreme Court decision on petitions for review". Texas Lawyer. Retrieved 19 January 2013.
  6. ↑ "No. 11-0024". Supreme Court of Texas Blog.
  7. ↑ "No. 11-0114". Supreme Court of Texas Blog.
  8. ↑ Anton, Leonora (24 March 2014). "Tampa couple's divorce could challenge same-sex marriage ban". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  9. ↑ Cordover, Adam (10 May 2014). "Tampa Same Sex Divorce Dismissed by Trial Judge; Parties to Appeal". ABC Family Law Blog. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
  10. ↑ Cordover, Adam (16 August 2014). "Florida Bar Family Law Section Moves to File Brief in Same Sex Divorce Appeal". ABC Family Law Blog. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
  11. ↑ Silvestrini, Elaine (27 April 2015). "Tampa lesbian couple still trying to get legally divorced". Tampa Tribune. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  12. ↑ Silvestrini, Elaine (2 June 2015). "Lesbian couple in Tampa gets court OK to divorce". Orlando Sentinel. Tampa Tribune. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  13. ↑ "House Bill 75, Sec. 7". Delaware Legislature. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  14. ↑ Minnesota Legislature. "Senate File 925, Sec. 7". Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  15. ↑ EL. "Marital Bliss? Gender Gaps..." Gender Across Borders. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
  16. ↑ Marian Jones (1 May 1997). "Lessons from a Gay Marriage: Despite stereotypes of gay relationships as short-lived, gay unions highlight the keys to success". Psychology Today. Retrieved 20 April 2011.
  17. ↑ "Lesbiennes scheiden veel meer dan homo's (Lesbians divorce much more than gays)". Nu.nl (in Dutch). 24 January 2012.
  18. ↑ Janene Pieters (1 March 2016). "Marriages Between Women Most Likely To End In Divorce". NL Times. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  19. ↑ Andersson, Gunnar (February 2006). "The Demographics of Same-Sex 'Marriages' in Norway and Sweden" (PDF). Demography. 43 (1): 79–98. doi:10.1353/dem.2006.0001.
  20. ↑ Andersson, Gunnar (February 2006). "The Demographics of Same-Sex 'Marriages' in Norway and Sweden" (PDF). Demography. 43 (1): 262. doi:10.1353/dem.2006.0001.
  21. ↑ Tony Grew (7 August 2008). "Less than 1% of civil partnerships end in 'divorce'". Pink News. Retrieved 20 April 2011.
  22. ↑ "UK: Lesbian Couples Twice As Likely As Gay Men To End Civil Partnerships". The Independent. London. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  23. 1 2 "Lesbian couples two and a half times more likely to get divorced than male same-sex couples, ONS figures reveal". The Independent. 18 October 2017.
  24. 1 2 Mohdin, Aamna (26 September 2018). "Heterosexual divorce in England and Wales is at lowest level since 1973". the Guardian. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  25. ↑ LeBlanc, Steve (9 June 2015). "Numbers show how gay marriage has fared in Massachusetts". Mass Live. Associated Press. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  26. ↑ Badgett, M.V. Lee; Herman, Jody L. (November 2011). "Patterns of Relationship Recognition by Same-Sex Couples in the United States" (PDF). The Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law.
  27. ↑ "Same-sex divorce rate not as low as it seemed". Retrieved 15 December 2014.
  28. ↑ "Divorce and Marriage Rates for Same-Sex Couples". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 16 April 2014.

Further reading

  • Dodge, Jeffrey A. (January 2006). "Same-sex Marriage and Divorce: A Proposal for Child Custody Mediation". Family Court Review. 44 (1): 87–103. doi:10.1111/j.1744-1617.2006.00069.x.
  • Goldhaber, Oren (April 2007). "I Want My Mommies: The Cry for Mini-DOMAs to Recognize the Best Interests of the Children of Same-sex couples". Family Court Review. 45 (2): 287–301. doi:10.1111/j.1744-1617.2007.00144.x.
  • Herman, Greg (Spring 2012). "Legal Effects of Same-Sex Marriage and Divorce". American Journal of Family Law. 26 (1): 5–6.
  • Joslin, Courtney. G. (July 2011). "Modernizing Divorce Jurisdiction: Same-sex Couples and Minimum Contacts". Boston University Law Review. 91 (5): 1669–1721. SSRN 1880168.
  • McCarthy, Ellen (9 April 2012). "A Court's Conundrum: When Same-Sex partners Want to Split". Washington Post.
  • Smith, Tovia (20 July 2011). "Gay Divorce A Higher Hurdle Than Marriage". NPR. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
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