A Knottier Knot for Gay Couples
By DAVID TULLER
Published: November 12, 2006

Seven states voted Tuesday to ban same-sex marriage through constitutional amendment.

Forty-four is the unchanged tally of states that now forbid gay marriage by statute, constitution or both (only the “both” changed). Massachusetts is alone in allowing it.

In California, Connecticut and Vermont, gay couples can enter into civil unions or domestic partnerships with most of the rights and obligations of marriage, and New Jersey’s highest court has ordered the state to address the issue equitably.

Now that it’s clear, more or less, where gays can get hitched, what about getting un-hitched?

If, say, two women have “civil-unioned” in Vermont and then move to Wisconsin, can they legally untangle themselves in the place they now call home? Can a couple married in Massachusetts be put asunder in Ohio? The questions are new, so answers are in short supply, and court rulings have been mixed. In one dispute involving the collapse of a Vermont civil union, courts in Vermont and Virginia are on a collision course that could end in the Supreme Court. the rest