Judge Grants 1st Same-Sex Divorce In Tarrant County
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NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - On Thursday, a judge in Fort Worth granted the county's first ever same-sex divorce.
The proceedings took place in Judge William Harris' family law court.
Brooke Powell and Cori Jo Long were married in New Hampshire on June 9, 2010. Four years after they wed, Powell filed for divorce in Texas, since that is where the women have always lived. In September of 2014 Judge William Harris turned down the request, since at the time Texas law banned same-sex unions.
When the 2014 ruling was handed down Long's attorney explained why her client wanted to be granted a divorce rather than having the marriage declared as void. "When a court declares a marriage void, as opposed to giving a divorce, it basically says it never existed," explained attorney Sonya Carrillo. " So any rights and duties, responsibilities, benefits that you would have under the law from your marriage are gone. Just like it never happened."
The same-sex divorce of Powell and Long is the first to be granted in Tarrant County and one of less than half-a-dozen in the state of Texas.
In June of 2015, the Texas Supreme Court upheld the Austin divorce of a same-sex couple, Angelique Taylor and Sabina Daly, who were married in Massachusetts in 2004.
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