BOSTON, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- The lesbian couple that helped inspire the Massachusetts same-sex marriage statute has filed for divorce, the Boston Herald reported Tuesday.
Sources told the newspaper that Hillary and Julie Goodrich filed the paperwork, which was immediately sealed, in Suffolk Probate and Family Court last week.
The couple were the plaintiffs in a landmark case that led to a state Supreme Court ruling in 2003 that made Massachusetts the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage.
The reasons the 5-year-old marriage was coming to an end were not clear Tuesday. Sources told the Herald Julie was less enthused than Hillary about their high profile in the gay community while Gerald Nissbaum, a Boston divorce lawyer and Herald columnist, speculated the relationship cooled after the battle to get married in the first place ended.
Opponents of homosexual marriage were less sympathetic. Kris Mineau of the Massachusetts Family Institute, sniffed that the Goodriches had put the state through a lot and was now walking away.
"Obviously, they don't hold the institution in very high esteem," Mineau said.
