Same-sex couples can't do worse at marriage than straight couples
STEVE LOPEZ
On Friday, a day after the California Supreme Court cleared the way for gay marriage, I visited a place in downtown Los Angeles where no one was talking about weddings. One-time lovers avoided eye contact, children wept and lawyers counted money.
Divorce court.
"Yeah, we're busy," Family Law Commissioner Steff Padilla said during a break in the action at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, which is teeming with misery.
Padilla had begun the day with five divorces on her docket and was up to nine by mid-morning. She's handled as many as 35 in a day (some judges do 40 to 45), and her courtroom is one of 58 countywide handling breakups and other matters of domestic disturbance and abuse.
As for those who argue that legalized gay unions threaten the institution and sanctity of marriage, the statistics leave no doubt that heterosexuals are perfectly capable of cheapening the vows entirely on their own.
L.A. County issues about 75,000 marriage licenses annually. In fiscal 2006-07, there were 108,554 filings countywide for dissolution, annulments and legal separations.
In Padilla's courtroom, I watched a recently divorced Lawndale couple battle over an estate valued at roughly $400,000. One and a half years into this battle, they stared straight ahead with slumped shoulders while their lawyers bickered for them.
"The romance goes out of the relationship when people get married," observed world-weary attorney Michael Rose, who represents the ex-husband in the Lawndale divorce and juggles 25 to 30 divorce cases at a time. If and when the romance goes out of gay and lesbian marriages, Rose said, his services will be available.
"I think it's a good thing," he said of his specialty, "because some people need to get divorced. They need their lives back."
Hard to argue with that. And with gays and lesbians rushing to the altar in an attempt to beat a possible November ballot initiative that could challenge the Supreme Court decision, we may soon need to pass bonds to build more divorce courts.
Or maybe not.
Just when I was ready to embrace the be-careful-what-you-wish-for theme, I spoke to Lorri L. Jean about the birthday party 16 years ago that changed her life.
"Unbeknownst to me, my mother was telling my friends, 'Lorri's been single too long. Can't you help her meet a nice woman?' "
