Source: St. Joseph News-Press, Associated Press via Boston Herald, KY3 TV
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - A lesbian’s request for an annulment from her lesbian partner has created a legal quandary for a circuit judge. Missouri doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages from other states.

Charisse Sparks and Janet Peters Mauceri Sparks married each other in Boston three years ago and moved to Missouri shortly thereafter. Late last year, Charisse Sparks went to Buchanan County Circuit Court to dissolve the marriage.

The filing is a legal challenge in a state that voted overwhelmingly four years ago to limit marriage to a union between a man and a woman. Judge Daniel Kellogg said he’s treating the case as an annulment.

Buchanan County Circuit Judge Daniel Kellogg said the case is being treated as an annulment, not a divorce. Ms. Sparks, in her petition filed in October, does not recognize her marriage.

Kellogg has taken the rare matter under careful consideration. He has scheduled a hearing for April 2.

“I haven’t seen it before. It’s under advisement right now,” Kellogg said.

The case may be the first same-sex filing in Missouri, and may then set precedent for cases to follow, according to sources on both sides of the same-sex marriage debate and the Missouri attorney general’s office.

Both parties declined to comment on the case, citing an active legal proceeding.

The ruling on the failed marriage between the women could bring back the contentious debate over same-sex marriage.

William Bird, the attorney for Dr. Sparks, asks in court documents that the marriage in Massachusetts be declared invalid from the beginning because Missouri doesn’t recognize same-sex couples. The petition also states the marriage is null and void because it violates a Massachusetts law.

Kay Madden, attorney for Peters-Mauceri-Sparks, countered that the union is legal because Missouri courts have long held that out-of-state marriages should be respected in Missouri as long as the marriage was legal in the state it was performed.

The case could have future ramifications, possibly setting a precedent for same-sex cases in Missouri. The state overwhelmingly voted four years ago to limit marriage to unions between one man and one woman.

The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian-based group, recently hailed a decision by the state Supreme Court in Rhode Island to deny a lesbian couple married in Massachusetts a divorce in that state.

Greg Scott, a spokesman for the group, said if Mr. Kellogg was to grant the couple a divorce or annulment, the ruling would “overrule” the will of Missourians, who in 2004 voted overwhelming for a constitutional amendment that prevents same-sex marriages from being conducted or recognized in Missouri.

“These divorce cases are a sneak attack on marriage,” he said. “I mean, you can’t have a divorce when a marriage doesn’t exist.”

Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, an organization seeking equality in marriage between gay and straight couples, said the Rhode Island ruling in December was a setback for recognition of same-sex marriages.

Increasingly, he said, such cases are popping up in courts across the country, and as they do, will turn public sentiment against the “gay exception” in both marriage and divorce.

“I think people in Missouri are fair, and the more they learn and hear about real couples like this and ask themselves, do they really hate gay relationships so much that they won’t let gay people out of them?” Mr. Wolfson said.

Full article: Same-sex breakup perplexes courts | St. Joe News
Lesbian couple married in Mass. seeks annulment in Missouri - BostonHerald.com
Lesbian couple married in Massachusetts seeks annulment in Missouri | KY3