I had the pleasure of being interviewed by David Brooks of the Nashua Telegraph for the article Same-sex divorces are a tiny but growing part of New Hampshire. As I observed, the reasons in a gay or lesbian divorce, and the emotions that come with it, are no different than any opposite-sex divorce. The differences come from the legal issues created by DOMA and other states who fail to recognize same-sex marriage.
I learned something new from David, who was the first person to obtain same-sex divorce statistics from the State of New Hampshire. By the numbers:
Marriages Divorces
Female couples 1,628 61
Male couples 623 23
Opposite-sex couples 26,718 15,222
The article also includes an interesting side note about the male/female ratios of marriages and divorces in New Hampshire same-sex couples.
As of last month , New Hampshire has seen 1,628 female couples get married, which is 2½ times as many as the 623 male couples who have gotten married.
Over that same period, 61 female couples have gotten divorced, separated or had their marriage annulled – also 2½ times the figure for males, 23.
A part of our discussion that did not make it into the article was David’s question about whether my practice was devoted solely to these gay and lesbian divorce and parenting matters. While it is an interesting area of the law that I enjoy practicing in, my hope is that DOMA will soon be overturned and there won’t be any difference in the near future. Although I currently handle a large number of same-sex cases, it would be silly to exclusively devote to a law practice to an area of the law that will eventually no longer exist when marriage equality is achieved.