With same-sex marriage now the law of the land, queers Australia-wide are now gifted access to all of the various particulars that come with getting hitched, including of course the un-hitchening process that is divorce.
Whilst we still don’t know who will get to be the first same-sex couple to wed in this big brown land of ours, we do now know some details of the lesbian couple set to be the first to officially split, with divorce documents lodged by a Perth barrister after the Marriage Amendment bill became law over the weekend.
Solicitor Maria Loukas and barrister Teresa Farmer have been employed by an unnamed female from Perth who legally wed her partner in 2015 in a European country where SSM was already legal.
Although seperated for some time, Australia’s cooked marriage laws meant that their civil relationship was not recognised until Saturday, meaning the pair can only now legally unwed. The fact neither of them were residents of the European country also meant they could not divorce via it’s courts.
Ms Loukas says the weird limbo the couple have been in for some time has caused quite the distress for her client:
For her it’s been about not being able to move on with her life. It’s been about not being able to tidy up the end of something to be able to start fresh somewhere else. She’s been held back in many ways.
Divorce is never a pleasant thing but the fact that seperated yet married gay couples can now finally exit the weird legal status that Australia’s laws had thrust upon them, and begin to fully move on with their lives, is awesome news.
Us gays really are just like the rest of you all now, huh?
