Judge refuses lesbians a divorce

Other marriages of gays dissolved in county court

Why was a lesbian couple’s marriage dissolution rejected by a Franklin County judge when the same court granted two gay men a divorce days earlier?

That’s the question Laura Christina Thompson and Evangeline Grace Roller are asking after Judge Jim Mason of Franklin County Domestic Relations Court refused on Wednesday to end their marriage. The Columbus women were wed in Toronto in 2007 and filed for dissolution on July 26; they were not represented by attorneys.

Mason, a former state representative, said he could not approve the dissolution because of Ohio’s 2004 constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. “Because same-sex marriages have no legal effect in Ohio (regardless of whether Canada authorizes same-sex marriage), the court is required to dismiss any dissolution or divorce proceeding requesting the termination of a same-sex marriage for lack of jurisdiction,” Mason ruled.

Thompson declined to comment on the decision; Roller could not be reached.

Mason’s ruling came just days after Judge Donald A. Cox, a private, court-appointed judge, approved a divorce for two gay men: Oleksandr Dzhembaz and Oleksandr Volkov, of Milford Center, Ohio. They were married in Linn County, Iowa, in 2009.

In his ruling, Cox determined that he had jurisdiction despite Ohio’s same-sex marriage ban. When a couple is married in a state that permits same-sex unions, he said, “Ohio’s statute merely states that the marriage has no legal force or effect in Ohio.” He said it does not prohibit Ohio courts from granting a divorce.

Cox also approved a same-sex divorce in March for two Columbus men: Jonathan E. Baize and Stephen J. Wissman.
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Columbus attorney Thomas J. Addesa, who represented Baize in that case, said he has handled several same-sex divorces in recent months, and they were approved by the courts.

He said he was not involved in the two women’s case, but in his opinion, Mason was “dead wrong.”

“My argument would be the court does have jurisdiction because our statute and amendment say nothing about a divorce. … We need not invalidate Ohio’s amendment or statute to grant somebody a divorce.”

Addesa said he thinks Mason’s decision denies a constitutional right to equal access to the courts.

Ian James, co-founder of FreedomOhio, the group backing a plan to ask Ohio voters to repeal the ban on same-sex marriage, said rolling back the law is necessary to provide equal opportunity in the courts.

“The marriage ban not only forbids those who are in love from seeking a commitment to marry, but also has the unintended consequence of denying those who have fallen out of love the ability to divorce.”

The Ohio Campaign to Protect Marriage, the group that spearheaded the successful marriage ban, has argued that Ohio courts cannot grant same-sex divorces because that would, by default, acknowledge that the couples were married.

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