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  Dallas same-sex divorce case a first for Texas
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Last EditedDFWDem  Jan 23, 2009 11:40am
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MediaNewspaper - Dallas Morning News
News DateFriday, January 23, 2009 05:00:00 PM UTC0:0
DescriptionBy ROY APPLETON / The Dallas Morning News

In what could further define the rights of same-sex couples in Texas and beyond, a Dallas man has filed for divorce from his husband and longtime partner.

The men married in Cambridge, Mass., in 2006 and later returned to Dallas. But on Wednesday one of the pair, citing "discord or conflict of personalities," asked a state district court in Dallas to void the union in what is believed to be the first such action in Texas.

"We'll see what happens," said attorney Peter Schulte, representing the man who asked that he and his former partner not be identified.

"Personal things could happen to us that wouldn't happen to other people," the man said Thursday. "My company has an extremely low tolerance for publicity."

Texas statutes and the state constitution prohibit same-sex marriages or civil unions. Citing those laws, Attorney General Greg Abbott successfully argued in a Beaumont case that two men could not get a divorce from a civil union in Vermont.

The attorney general said Thursday that he will intervene in the Dallas case as well "to defend Texas law – and the will of the people."

Schulte said that even though Texas law prohibits same-sex marriage, "that's not what we're talking about here. They want to get divorced just like a straight couple."

The Dallas lawyer said he will argue that the men have that right under Article IV, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution. The so-called Full Faith and Credit Clause provides, in part, that states recognize contracts from other states – that the marriage bond, he said, is universal.
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