Nevada retroactively recognizes same-sex marriages in lesbian divorce case

Supreme Court of Nevada
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that the state must honor marriages of same-sex couples performed before the state legalized marriage equality in 2014.

The case involves two women – Mary Elizabeth LaFrance and Gail Cline – who got a civil union in 2000 in Vermont and then married in Canada in 2003 who are now going through a divorce. By the time their state recognized same-sex couples’ marriages, they were already separated.

Related: Nevada voters turn same-sex marriage ban into legal protections for gay couples

According to Gay City News, the issue was how to divide up assets they acquired since they got married. Since Nevada is a community property state, everything that either of them earned since they were married should belong to both of them, according to state law.

Which raises the question of when they got married. Cline argued that they should be…

Related: Nevada retroactively recognizes same-sex marriages in lesbian divorce case

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