PROVIDENCE, R.I., Aug. 18 (UPI) -- The Rhode Island Supreme Court must decide whether a same-sex couple who married in Massachusetts can divorce in Rhode Island.
The court is reviewing more than 20 friend-of-the-court briefs filed by groups ranging from the Family Research Council to the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, The Providence Journal reported. A third round of briefs is due at the end of the month.
Margaret Chambers and Cassandra Ormiston married in 2004 in Massachusetts, the only state where gay marriage is legal. They have petitioned the Family Court in Rhode Island for a divorce.
The state Supreme Court certified the case: “May the Family Court properly recognize, for the purpose of entertaining a divorce petition, the marriage of two persons of the same sex who were purportedly married in another state?”
GLAD argues that Rhode Island has no specific ban on gay marriage and must therefore recognize Massachusetts marriages as valid. Conservative groups say in Rhode Island -- and every state except Massachusetts -- legal marriages only exist between men and women.
