Texas Appeals Court Upholds Gay Divorce

A Texas appeals court ruled Friday that state attorney general Greg Abbott cannot block the divorce of two women who married out-of-state.

The two women, Angelique Naylor and Sabina Daly, were married in Massachusetts in 2004 but returned to Texas, where same-sex marriage is banned under a constitutional amendment passed in 2005. A district judge granted the couple a divorce in 2009, the Austin American-Statesmanreports.

“This case ... is not a suit to declare a statute unconstitutional or enjoin its enforcement, but a private divorce proceeding involving issues of property division and child custody,” the appellate court ruled in an opinion written by Justice Diane Henson.

Of the ruling, a spokeswoman for the attorney general said in a statement, “The Texas Constitution and statutes are clear: only the union of a man and a woman can be treated as a marriage in Texas. The court’s decision undermines unambiguous Texas law.”

Read the article here.