Jonathan Herring examines the approach to the dissolution of gay marriage
Much excitement greeted the first “gay divorce” to reach the Court of Appeal (Lawrence v Gallagher [2012] EWCA Civ 394, [2012] All ER (D) 225 (Mar)).
Technically, of course, the case dealt with the financial consequences of a dissolution of a civil partnership, not a divorce. But in the tabloid press and in the blogosphere, such niceties were avoided, in the discussions of whether “gay marriages” were to be treated any differently from straight ones.
Not so civil
Mr Lawrence was an equity partner at JP Morgan, while Mr Gallagher was an actor who had played the part of Bernadette in the stage version of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. They were 47 and 54 years old respectively, at the time of the dissolution. They had started cohabiting in February 1997, entered a civil partnership in December 2007, but by September 2008 they had separated and their civil partnership was dissolved in June 2009.
Mrs Justice Parker, an extremely experienced family judge, heard the case and held that the same principles
