The flip side of the national movement to establish same-sex marriage in the United States is the right to dissolve same-sex unions. The Associated Press reports on how estranged couples in "nonrecognition states would have to move back to the state where they were married and establish residency in order to get divorced — an option that can be unworkable in many cases."
James Esseks, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, told the AP that the right to end marriage is just as important as the right to enter them. '"Part of that system is creating a predictable, regularized way of dealing with the reality that relationships sometimes end,' [Esseks] said. 'Those are the times people are the worst to each other, and that's why we have divorce courts. There's got to be an adult in the room."'
The AP further profiles a Mississippi case in which that state's Attorney General's office filed a motion to intervene because a same-sex couple married in California is seeking to have a divorce recognized by Mississippi's family courts.
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