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IF you thought the fight over same-sex marriage has been tumultuous, just wait for the era of same-sex divorce. With New York State’s new law allowing same-sex marriage, not just for residents but for out-of-staters as well, a bumper crop of weddings is sure to follow — and, eventually and inevitably, a sizable number of divorces.

But Americans are a roving sort, and people who marry and move to places hostile to their union could find, in disunion, a legal limbo. A couple who marry in New York and seek a divorce in Texas could find themselves fighting not just each other but also Texas’ attorney general, Greg Abbott. He has tried to intervene in two same-sex divorces, arguing that if the state does not recognize the marriage it won’t recognize the divorce, either.

If blocked in Texas, the unhappy couple can’t head back to New York for a quick split either. New York’s same-sex marriage law does not require residency to wed, but the state does require residency of at least 90 days to obtain a divorce. A stay like that is out of the question for most people.

“Where can you get a divorce?” asked Tobias Barrington Wolff, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. “The answer might be nowhere, perversely.”

Do a little reductio, and it’s not a long way to absurdum.

Andrew M. Koppelman, a professor at the Northwestern University School of Law and the author of “Same Sex, Different States: When Same-Sex Marriages Cross State Lines,” said that if Mr. Abbott and other attorneys general were truly serious about not recognizing same-sex marriages, they would allow obviously mischievous results. “You’re saying that somebody who lives in Massachusetts can empty the safe-deposit box, empty the bank account and go to Houston — and say, ‘Ha, ha, ha, you can’t come after me here, because Texas doesn’t recognize your marriage’?” he asked.

Conceivably, he said, a woman in a same-sex marriage in New York could abscond to the Lone Star State, where she might then marry a man, since the previous marriage doesn’t exist there.  She wouldn’t even have to tell him that she had a wife in New York. “Has Texas legalized bigamy?” he wondered.

Margaret M. Brady, a lawyer in New York specializing in family law for same-sex couples, said that even those couples facing no extraordinary obstacles to divorce would find it a very different experience from that of heterosexual couples. Under New York law, the automatic division of property covers only assets acquired after marriage, not “premarital contributions” to things like real estate. Yet some of her clients were together 15 years or more before marrying. “It will be interesting to see if the courts will be willing to take into consideration those premarital contributions made at a time that the couple could not avail themselves of the privilege of marrying,” she said.

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Most of these issues will go away after the Supreme Court strikes down CA Prop 8.  Its failed in federal court repeatedly.

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I just don't understand why anyone would care if same sex people marry or divorce...
I mean, if they marry, how does that effect you?  If they divorce then you have an "I told you so..."  Really, I know it is an affront to many people but how does it effect anyone but themselves?

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but aren't we all in it together now? isn't that the theory behind an individual mandate?

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We should be but you and I are not foolish enough to believe that are we?

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i would have to say that if we're going to allow same sex marriage (which seems to be the trend), then there are going to be issues that go along with that, such as divorce, alimony, taxes, etc.