So I was reading the freebie Metro newspaper this morning, as I do every morning on the Red Rocket (aka Toronto Transit). One of the filler blurbs caught my eye. It was about a lesbian couple in Indiana who were married in Toronto in 2005 and now want a divorce. But there’s a problem: Indiana doesn’t recognize their marriage, so it won’t grant them a divorce.
So just ask Ontario for a divorce, right? Unfortunately it’s not that simple. There isn’t a residency requirement to get married, but there is to get a divorce. One of the partners must have resided in Ontario for at least a year. Note that the residency requirement for a divorce applies everywhere in Canada.
This reminded me of the case of M.M. and J.H., the first same-sex couple in Canada to ask for a divorce. Again, a problem. Canada had made same-sex marriage legal, but it hadn’t considered divorce. When it came to divorce, a marriage was still defined as being between a man and a woman. Oops. Fortunately the government remedied the situation.
Moral of the story: If you’re thinking of getting married away from home because same-sex marriages aren’t performed in your jurisdiction, make sure you can get a divorce! Yeah, I know, you and your partner are in love and will never get a divorce. Well, check into it, anyway. Life doesn’t always turn out the way you expect.
