First Same-Sex Couple Married in California Getting Divorced
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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(LOS ANGELES) — An interesting sign of the times: the lesbian couple whose legal struggle helped pave the way for gay marriage in California is getting divorced.
Robin Tyler and Diane Olson were the original plaintiffs in the California Supreme Court case (argued by attorney Gloria Allred) that opened the doors to lesbian and gay marriage in the nation’s most populous state. They appeared in an interview with Allred for ABC News.
In June 2008, Tyler and Olson were the first same-sex couple to wed in Los Angeles County.
During the campaign over Proposition 8 — the voter-approved initiative that ultimately overturned the court’s decision and banned gay marriage — Olson and Tyler appeared in campaign ads asking the voters to not “take our marriage away.”
But now their marriage is apparently on the rocks. While they have plenty of company — in Southern California, 75 percent of all marriages end in divorce — the timing is kind of awkward. A federal appeals court in California on Tuesday struck down Proposition 8, the controversial ballot measure, passed in 2008 with 52 percent of the vote, that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
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