Interstate same-sex divorces

On October 1, District Judge Tena Callahan of Dallas, Texas granted a divorce to a same-sex couple who had been married in Massachusetts and sought a divorce in Texas. This case presents a number of interesting legal issues regardless of whether one supports or opposes same-sex unions.

1. Does a state have to recognize a marriage from another state if the current state's laws do not provide for the same definition of marriage? The concept of full faith and credit requires that states enforce other states' laws and contracts to the extent that they apply to former residents of those states.

2. Was more than just philosophy and ideology at play here? I think so. There's a practical element here, and I think it's the desire not to open the floodgates. Most family court systems are clogged beyond belief already. The filing fee, usually a few hundred dollars, nowhere near covers the time for to produce the forms, have the staff explain how they're filled out, have the court clerks answer questions for sometimes hours, take them down to a judge, have the judge spend his or her time reading the papers, have one or more court hearings involving the paid services of a judge and at least one staff person, and so on and so on. My state, Oregon, could never spare even a moment of its court time. Someone I know was involved in an adoption case in the family courts here for 14 months with over a dozen hearings, all of which were squeezed into the last possible window. Putting politics aside, the court system in many states may not be eager to take on the legal ramifications of a marital relationship that is available in only a few states.

3. Isn't a same-sex divorce a win for opponents of same-sex marriage? (Please at the outset note that I am answering this question objectively, and any one-sidedness in one aspect or another in this question should be balanced by other comments I make, and does not reflect my personal views on this topic or any other). You'd think so at first glance, but not really. People who oppose same-sex marriage believe that marriage as a legal relationship should exist only between one man and one woman. If you're not married, you don't have any legal relationship that needs to be dissolved. Only marriages need to be dissolved by the courts. If I had to guess, I would suppose that opponents of same-sex marriage are just as opposed to same-sex divorce because the very fact of needing a divorce through the courts means that what is being dissolved was a legal relationship to begin with. Same-sex marriage opponents strongly believe that same-sex marriages should not have that legal status.