News (USA)

New York City Hall denied a gay couple a divorce even though they were married there

gay divorce wedding cake
Photo: Shutterstock

A gay Polish couple married at New York City Hall in 2013 was denied a divorce for being non-residents.

Andrzej Gruszczynski and Wiktor Jerzy Twarkowski took advantage of the Bloomberg administration’s “NYC I Do” campaign that encouraged same-sex couples living in countries without marriage equality to tie the knot in the Big Apple, the New York Post reports.

A Manhattan Supreme Court judge ruled on Tuesday that the city should grant the divorce, since it saw fit to marry them in the first place.

Justice Matthew Cooper called it a matter of “basic fairness and simple justice” in his ruling. It could set a precedent for future cases.

The couple’s lawyer, Livius Ilasz, noted that while Poland doesn’t recognize their marriage, they are an “international couple,” and other EU countries, like Germany, do recognize them as a married couple.

Cooper noted that the couple stressed that if New York City didn’t grant the divorce, they would “face the prospect of being unable to find any forum in which they can be divorced.”

Ilasz predicted the ruling by Cooper could “spark reforms in conservative European countries to at least recognize [gay people’s] rights” to get both married and divorce.

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