Robin Tyler has confirmed that she and Diane Olson, the first couple to legally marry in Los Angeles County, where they sued for the right, are now getting divorced.
They applied for a marriage license every year since 2001 and were rejected until June 16, 2008, finally being given the right when the state's Supreme Court found a California ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional.
"When we took the oath, the clerk who gave us our license had tears in her eyes," Tyler remembers in a 2008 op-ed about the moment for The Huffington Post. "She had turned us down so many times earlier that she could not hold back her emotions."
Tyler and Olson were two of the four original plaintiffs in the case that led to the landmark ruling, which was eventually overturned by California voters with the passage of Proposition 8.
When they were married, they'd been together for 15 years and known each other for 35.
A bunch of us were talking
A bunch of us were talking about this yesterday and the topic of serial monogamy and "U-Haul syndrome" within the Lesbian community took center stage -- and how a lot of idiotic Lesbians are going to now 'walk down the aisle' and snare themselves into a contractual obligation that they can't just walk out and move on from as if it were just another short-term relationship. Marriage is a legal contract and it is binding. Divorce is a legal dissolution of that contractual obligation. Marriage is serious business and Lesbians and Gays cannot afterwards cry "ignorance" about its expectations and repercusions because a same-sex marriage may be a new phenomena, but the institution of marriage is neither new, nor a mystery. According to some other articles I've read about Tyler and Olson, they were friends for years before becoming lovers, and then partners -- and I think they were probably already entering into Lesbian Bed Death stage when Tyler decided same-sex marriage was going to be her next attention-grabber. Personally, I do not want to marry anyone. I do not want to be "normal" and similar to heterosexuals in any manner. I don't care about tax breaks. I don't care about having Social Security spousal rights. Committing my love to one woman and having her devote her love to me is what I care about -- in sickness, in health, and until death. I don't need a document to make it real. As long as I can execute a directive, a codicil, and a will that is recognized in my state and in most, if not all, states -- it's good enough for me. But since many states do not recognize and honor the legal directives of Lesbians and Gays, our community should focus on demanding that all states in this nation pass laws that mandate their recognition and acceptance of personal legal documents executed by Lesbians and Gays in any state.
Sad
This is really sad. To be together all this time, sue to gain the right to legally marry, and then a few years later divorce. Unfortunately, all the general public will remember is a lesbian couple who got married in 2008 and now, only a few short years later, are divorcing. This just perpetuates the stereotype that lesbians and gays go from relationship to relationship. I've seen it myself, and been invited to and participated in many civil unions where the couple is broken up only a few years or even a few months later, usually because a third person came between them. If we can't respect our own relationships, why should we expect anyone else to? In our community we have to respect others in committed relationships and know they are off-limits, but this doesn't happen very often. Sad all around.
So sad
What difference did marriage make in their relationship that caused them to call it quits after being together so long? I'd love to read an interview with them. There's an important story there, I'm sure.
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