Local Law Firms Home > Divorce News > One of the First Same-Sex Couples to Get Married in California File Divorce "People keep calling it a gay divorce, but there's no such thing as a gay divorce in California - it's just a divorce," said Tyler. "The reasons aren't sensationalistic any more than any other long-term couple." Tyler and Olson had already been together for many years in June 2008 when they shortly got married after California’s highest court dismissed the ban on gay and lesbian marriages. Tyler and Olson, 58, were pushed into the countrywide center of attention when they pressed charges against California in 2004. Their claim was later consolidated with another filed by the city of San Francisco, where then-Mayor Gavin Newsom had mandated City Hall to conduct same-sex marriages. Since they were among the original to challenge the laws, they were the first to wed in Los Angeles County, said lawyer Gloria Allred, who represented Tyler and Olson in their case. "They loved and were committed to each other in a relationship for many years before they married," Allred had stated. "I am sad that their life together has come to an end, but I wish them the very best in the future." Allred said she didn't believed their divorce would negatively affect the same-sex marriage cause, "any more than the divorce of heterosexuals hurts the cause of marriage between a man and a woman." "When you fight for civil rights, they say, 'Well, you're the poster women for same-sex marriage in California.' But we're just ordinary people. We shouldn't be expected to have a higher bar than anybody else. A group of people who have no civil rights shouldn't be held to a higher standard when they do get civil rights. |