Gay Marriage “Pioneers” Split Up
by Aaron Margolis, July 21st, 2006 at 12:02pm
The state legislature has put off the vote on the gay-marriage ban, but the couple who were the lead plaintiffs in the landmark case that brought gay marriage to Massachusetts are split up.
They told the world that their relationship was like any other and that’s why they should be allowed to marry. Now, friends say, they are showing once again that they are just like any other couple: Two years after getting married, Julie and Hillary Goodridge, lead plaintiffs in the state’s landmark gay marriage case, are splitting.
Mary Breslauer, a spokeswoman for the couple, confirmed the separation last night. She said the couple are focused now on trying to do what is best for their daughter, Annie, 10.
“Julie and Hillary Goodridge are amicably living apart,” Breslauer said in a telephone interview. “As always their number one priority is raising their daughter, and like the other plaintiff couples in this case, they made an enormous contribution toward equal marriage. But they are no longer in the public eye, and request that their privacy be respected.”
Breslauer said they have not filed for divorce. She would not comment on their plans and offered no other details.
Supporters of gay marriage had cast them as the face of their cause: happily together for two decades, financially stable, loving parents, and in 2004, able to legally wed. Julie Goodridge, 49, is president of NorthStar Asset Management, an investment advisory firm, and Hillary, 50, is program director for the Unitarian Universalist Funding Program.
“I just think this really doesn’t say anything,” Breslaeur said yesterday when asked by a reporter about the significance of the separation. “Our families, like other families, can face tough times, with many making it through those moments, but some not.”
Since gay marriage was legalized in Massachusetts in May 2004, about 7,300 same - sex couples have obtained licenses, according to a Globe survey earlier this year. There have been about 45 divorces; the number of separations has not been reported.
“Unfortunately, lesbian and gay couples break up just as heterosexual couples,” said Joyce Kauffman, a Cambridge lawyer who specializes in gay and lesbian family law. “It’s a fact of life. There are stresses and strains on all of us. And sometimes relationships can’t beat that stress. It happens to gay people just as well straight people.”
The separation was first reported yesterday by Bay Windows, a gay and lesbian newspaper based in Boston.
Will gay marriage share the fate as the Goodridge marriage?
Visit: VoteOnMarriage.org
Entry Filed under: Gay Marriage
7 Comments
1. obi juan | July 21st, 2006 at 12:08 pm
I wonder how long they kept it up just for appearances. When did they actually move apart? Before they moved apart how long were they still living a lie? Was it maybe a sham all along? Did they ever have any intent to be married and all that entailed? Did the case lack standing from the get go? This raises a lot of questions.
2. anthony | July 21st, 2006 at 3:39 pm
Their splitting up raises no questions. They were not the only plaintiff’s in the case. Even if they were it has no legal ramifications. With the right to marry comes the right to divorce. Straight people get married for all the wrong reasons and divorce two years later all the time, you should be used to it.
3. stomple | July 21st, 2006 at 4:08 pm
“Will gay marriage share the fate as the Goodridge marriage?”
You could just as easily ask whether gay marriage will share the same fate as the .61% of all gay marriages that end in divorce, or possibly the same fate as the 37% of all straight marriages that end in divorce. 45 divorces out of 7300 marriages is an insanely small number, I had no idea that was the case. ••••••••••••
VoteOnMarriage.org is an interesting, thorough site. I’m not from Massachusetts, and haven’t been following the debate at the state level that closely, but a quick Google search turned up EqualMarriage.org. They’re a decent counterpoint for those interested in learning more. •••••••••••• VoteOnMarriage.org also needs to update their site. They state that “Having collected nearly three times the required signatures needed for certification by the Secretary of State, the Protection of Marriage Amendment now awaits a vote by the Massachusetts legislature during the state Constitution Convention now scheduled for July 12, 2006.” Actually, the vote was postponed over a week ago. (News Link on story)
4. Matt | July 21st, 2006 at 4:24 pm
Obi-Juan, your comments are not worthy of a Jedi. Or a 12-year-old , for that matter. When a straight couple gets divorced (as they do every day) do you subject them to this kind of scrutiny? ivorce is painful. Divorce in the media must be more painful. But divorce with anonymous people on blogs offering snarky comments? Allow them some dignity.
5. Lets Vote On It | July 22nd, 2006 at 10:24 am
Stomple,
give it time.. you can’t compare two years of perversion to generations and generations of the real thing.
6. obi juan | July 22nd, 2006 at 12:49 pm
Matt, we aren’t talking about an everyday couple. The was the couple the gay marriage movement put forward as the example by which gay marriage was to be judged. It didn’t even last 2 years. That’s the best the gay marriage movement could find.
7. Matt | July 22nd, 2006 at 4:14 pm
It didn’t even last 2 years. That’s the best the gay marriage movement could find.
So you’re trying tto argue that all other gay marriages will last less time? sort of funny, particularly considering, as stomple mentions above, that the gay divorce rate is less than 1%. Seems like lots of couples are teogether for longer.
And there’s the fact that the Goodridges were together for 21 years, ande I’m sure they would have been married long earlier if they’d been allowed. I’m guessing that you aren’t saying that legal marriage broke up their relationship, since that would seem like you didn’t support the institution of marraige.