Boston Divorce Lawyer Blog

* courtesy of the New York Times

I’ve been posting a lot here recently about marriage despite this being a blog about divorce.  But obviously divorce and marriage is related.  As a divorce attorney, I don’t celebrate when my clients get a divorce.  My job is a necessary evil.  Divorce happens and it is the role of the divorce attorney to help lay a foundation out of the financial and emotional ruins of a divorce.

Therefore, I often ask myself the most basic question in my practice – what does being married mean or rather, what should it mean.

The bill did not pass.

Last week, voters in Maine struck down a law voted on by their legislature and signed into law by their governor, granting same-sex couples equal rights under the law.  This is very disappointing and as I’ve said before, perhaps the rights of the minority should not be placed in the hands of the majority.  If this was the case, we would still have segregation of schools, no voting rights for blacks and women and we’d still prohibit interracial marriages.

I came across a paper by Jeffrey Lax and Justin Phillips, “Gay Rights in the States: Public Opinion and Policy Responsiveness,” published recently in the American Political Science Review.  Here is a chart from that paper illustrating the support for same-sex marriage by varying age groups (click to enlarge):

What this tells us is that in 15-20 years, when the more tolerant 18-29 yr olds become the average age group, same-sex couples will have equality.  This gives me hope but it sure is a long time to wait.

Since Vermont recently allowed same-sex couples to marry, I thought I’d post about a weird quirk in Massachusetts marriage laws that I had been wondering about for a while.

Chapter 207, Section 1 prohibits a man from marrying certain relatives.  Chapter 207, Section 2 prohibits a woman from marrying certain of her relatives.  These laws basically outlines the prohibition against incest, marrying within certain consanguinity or affinity.

However, if you notice, it prohibits a man from marrying only female family of certain consanguinity.  It also prohibits women from marrying only male family of certain consanguinity.  So does that mean a gay man can legally marry his nephew or grandson?  Or a lesbian woman can marry her niece or granddaughter?

Maybe I’m missing something and if I am, please comment and enlighten me.  I’m also not saying I found a loophole.  Please don’t go off marrying your grandchildren.  I will not be held responsible.