Same-sex Divorce Creates Legal Quandary, says Windsor lawyer

WINDSOR, Ont. — A brewing legal battle over same-sex divorce has two Michigan women worried they either won’t be able to get one or were never legally married in the first place.

“You have the province who says, ‘Come, you can get married, no problem,’ but at the same time you’re denying them the opportunity to get relief,” said Tiffani Frederick, a Windsor lawyer who is representing one of the women who got married here in 2006 and is now seeking to have a one-year residency requirement for divorce waived. “It’s about equality.”

A divorce case involving a woman from Florida and another from England who got married in Toronto in 2005 has stirred up controversy over the legal complexities of matrimonial law for non-residents and what some see as a federal government attempt to erode gay marriage rights.

Read more: Windsor Star