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Loading ...Lesbian couple who fought for marriage in Mass. to divorce
02.03.2009 11:58am EST
(Boston, Massachusetts) The lesbian couple whose fight to marry led to the 2003 court ruling that opened same-sex marriage in Massachusetts has reportedly filed for divorce.
The Boston Herald reports that Hillary and Julie Goodridge have split up and petitioned Suffolk Probate and Family Court to end their marriage. Details of the case are sealed the paper reported in Tuesday editions.“I wish I could talk them into staying together, but I don’t see how,” Hillary Goodridge’s mother Ann Kiernan told The Herald. “They had a great thing going. I love Julie, and I always will.”
Hillary Goodridge, 52, and Julie Goodridge, 51, share custody of their 12-year-old daughter, Annie. Neither woman responded to a request for an interview The Herald reported.
Julie Goodridge is a Boston investment adviser, Hillary Goodridge is director of the Unitarian Universalist Funding Program.
In April 2001, the Goodridges, with the help of Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, went to court seeking the right to marry. The case reached the state’s highest court in 2003.
In a 4-3 decision the court ruled that a proposed civil union bill was insufficient and that gay and lesbian couples could no longer be excluded from civil marriage rights in Massachusetts.
The case, which gained national attention, was known as Goodridge v Department of Health.
In 2004, the Supreme Judicial Court ruling went into effect, making Massachusetts the first state to allow same-couples to wed. When the Goodridges tied the knot shortly after the ruling took effect, the couple had been together for nearly 20 years.
Last October GLAD won the right of same-sex couples in Connecticut to marry, and the LGBT law organization in November vowed to win marriage equality in the four other New England states by 2012.
While LGBT rights groups lamented the reported end to the Goodridges marriage, the group that twice attempted and failed to get a constitutional amendment in Massachusetts to ban same-sex marriage expressed pleasure.
“Divorce is a very painful issue, but I also can’t help but reflect on the pain this couple has caused on the commonwealth and the nation to redefine marriage. And now they’re getting divorced? It doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute told The Herald.
blah, blah, blah
“(…)I also can’t help but reflect on the pain this couple has caused on the commonwealth and the nation to redefine marriage. And now they’re getting divorced? It doesn’t make a lot of sense,”
This is the most moronic thing I’ve ever read. So gay couples are fighting so hard to get a right to marriage that they’re not allowed the right to divorce like every couple???
Are we going to have to fight bitter battles to get every single simple basic right everyone else is given?!
Their separation was discussed in the press back in the summer of 2006. It’s sad, but it happens, and everyone’s rights will be protected better than if they had not been able to marry. Let’s give them some privacy and move on.
The woman who fought for reproductive choice all the way to the US Supreme Court in Roe -v- Wade became a “born-again Christian” several years ago — I guess she though she
needed a do-over. Then she came out publicly and denounced abortion.
At least these ladies are not denouncing same-sex marriage equality as some self-destructive Gay men and Lesbians have done in several other states when there was a child custody case involved.
…We should all be at least grateful for that.
~ Bud Evans
http://rainfish2000.blogspot.com
Things happen, life happens, people change.
Know this is a let down for some, but these women fought with other gay people and their allies to get Massachusetts to where it is today. And it has Connecticut next door to it another gay marriage state. Never thought my birthstate would have gay marriage,, but then years ago never thought any state at all in the US or any place in the world for that matter would have gay marriage.
Years ago the idea of same-sex partners was something I never thought about except in fleeting thought as a twenty year old like, too bad men can’t marry each other. But 35 years ago how many people had such an idea except as a passing dreamy notion not to be taken seriously.
In 35 years times and ways of looking at things can be very different, hopes and aspirations can be very different from way back then. Men might have shared living space and be madly in love back then just like now, but then marriage would have been like a fantasy to be pushed away.
People like these who dared to do more than hope and fought to change that hope into the reality of being married and of being able to protect their relationship and each other just in case….
People like these 2 women were pioneers and trailblazers working toward making the way easier for future gay couples wantng to marry.
I wish them the best of luck in again finding future happiness with that special someone.
Just how much hypocrisy does it take for anti-gay marriage groups to rejoice in a lesbian couple getting a divorce. If marriages failing was the criteria for forbidding marriage between a couple then no man and woman should have the right to a legal marriage since at least half or more of those marriages fail too, at least in America. Rejoicing in the failure of any marriage is just one more example of the true nature of these people who hate the thought of legal gay marriages. Only a person missing something in their hearts and souls would rejoice in someone elses pain no matter what the reason. Shame on them…Shame that even their God may not forgive when their time comes.
I agree that it’s sad that they fought for so long,and now it’s over.
But I still give them all the credit,in the world,that they fought and won!
Not just for themselves,but for ALL of us.
Barb,
I can’t agree with you more. They fought for the right to marry and in doing so they gave gays and lesbians the same opportunities to divorce that straight people have long enjoyed. While it is sad they are exercising that right, we should celebrate the fact that they have it in the first place, and others will continue to have it long after they can no longer stand to look at each other.
Ah (Ms., Mrs., or is it Missy) Kris Mineua. The only pain this couple put anyone through would be latent homosexuals that feel they cannot come out becuse of a narrow world view forced on them. Or the hateful ignorant that feels like the world will end if we do not all believe like you.
Tom in Long Beach
Damn…That’s messed up! Why be together after all of these years, just to split up after u get married? and FOUGHT to get married at that… That’s just ridiculous.
I completely agree with you Barb! Just because one particular same-sex marriage breaks up does not mean that ALL same-sex marriages are doomed to a similiar fate. It’s always sad when two people (of any gender) get to a point where divorce seems like the only acceptable option left. However, this one divorce should not (and does not) reflect the fate of all other same-sex couples.
Just as this couple deserves the right to marry, so do they deserve the right to divorce. Imagine the pressures, the emotional toll of going through the legal process fighting for the very right to marry; think that might cause a little stress? Yes!
People, some relationships, whether same-gender or hetero, will fail. We need the legal vehicles to allow this should the need arise.
None of this invalidates the right for equality under the law for same-gender couples; just check the stats for divorces for hetero couples and you’ll see, there’s no room for pointing fingers at this one.
Peace.