A week after gay marriage is legalized, Minn. sees its first divorce

Less than a week after gay marriage was legalized in Minnesota, the first gay couples have filed for divorce — but it’s not what you think.

Many gay couples who were married, but have since split up and moved to one of the 37 states that do not recognize gay marriages, have found that seeking divorce as a gay couple is more expensive and time consuming than getting a straight divorce.

“It’s been really tough being in limbo of not being married on July 31, and then all of a sudden come Aug. 1, boom — I have a marriage again,” Minnesota woman Dawn Tuckner told CBS Minnesota of the impact her state’s legalization of gay marriage has had. Tuckner was married to her former partner in Canada in 2004. Her partner left her and the couple’s 7-year-old son three years ago.

Canadian law requires residency in order to be granted a divorce. And because gay marriage was not legal in Minnesota at the time of their separation, Tuckner and her partner were unable to get a legally recognized divorce. Instead, they verbally agreed that Tuckner would keep their house.

Now that she is legally married again, Tuckner is filing for divorce and planning to marry the woman she met shortly after she and her former partner separated. But the roadblocks for the two are not the same as those faced by straight couples.

CNN reported in May that the average cost of an out-of-state divorce for gay couples is $20,000. For straight couples, that cost falls to $10,000. When custody issues are involved, that number jumps to $40,000, compared to $20,000 for a straight couple.

The cost of divorce for gay couples falls, though, depending on where the couple is trying to get a divorce. Gay divorces cost the same as straight divorces in states that have legalized gay marriage.

Attorneys say gay divorce and straight divorce should be the same in theory regardless of state, but in practice couples run into issues because there has been little precedent set. And when a child is involved, the question is even murkier.

“The law is such a grey area,” attorney Jason Brown, who is representing Tuckner, told KARE 11. “How will a system that some believe has biases towards mothers react when there are two mothers involved in that divorce? In that sense, indeed, we are in uncharted territory.”

As Tuckner enters into a custody battle for her son, she is at least happy to finally be resolving the matter.

“I was so excited. I’ve been stuck in a relationship — basically being married to someone that, we didn’t live together, we had nothing to do, no contact — and it felt like I was trapped,” she told Fox 9.

Contact Stephanie Grimes at sgrimes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @steph_grimes on Twitter.