(Rogelio V. Solis / AP)
A lesbian couple in Desoto County, Mississippi — the Memphis suburbs — wants a divorce, but Mississippi has rejected their request, thus forcing them to stay gay married, at least for now:
A Mississippi judge on Monday refused to grant a divorce to a lesbian couple who got married in California, saying the marriage wasn’t recognized under state law, according to the woman who filed and her lawyer.
Lauren Beth Czekala-Chatham, who filed for the divorce in September in north Mississippi’s DeSoto County, said in a telephone interview Monday that the judge seemed sympathetic and that she plans to appeal the ruling.
Czekala-Chatham, a 51-year-old credit analyst and mother of two teenage sons from an earlier straight marriage, said she was “a little bit disappointed.”
“I would have liked to have had the divorce, but either way he ruled, it was going to be appealed,” she said.
Democrat Attorney General Jim Hood’s office had argued that Mississippi can’t grant a divorce in a marriage it doesn’t recognize. Hood’s office said in a motion to intervene on Nov. 15 that Mississippi “has no obligation to give effect to California laws that are contrary to Mississippi’s expressly stated public policy.”
Czekala-Chatham’s lawyer, Wesley Hisaw, said Desoto County Chancery Judge Mitchell Lundy said he felt that “his hands were tied” by Mississippi law.
Forget Full Faith and Credit, Mississippi’s hands are tied! Oh, the Constitutional challenges coming down the pike are going to be fun.
[h/t Joe]
