Same-Sex Registry Doesn't End Alimony
Even under California’s current domestic partnership law, same-sex couples don’t get all the same benefits as married opposite-sex couples. So they also don’t get all the same detriments, an Orange County judge has decided.
Thus, the fact that Ron Garber’s ex-wife has registered as a domestic partner of another woman doesn’t end his obligation to pay her $1,250 per month in alimony for five years, because she has entered into a cohabitation agreement rather than an actual marriage, reports the Los Angeles Times.
“If he had signed that agreement under the same factual scenario — except marriage, not domestic partnership — his agreement to pay spousal support would be null and void,” says Garber’s lawyer, William M. Hulsy.
The case has made Garber, 51, who plans to appeal the ruling, into something of a same-sex marriage advocate. “This is not about gay or lesbian,” he says. “This is about the law being fair.”
