Same-sex and Non-traditional Families Attorney in Minneapolis, Minnesota
What legal issues commonly arise in same-sex divorces?
What legal issues commonly arise in same-sex divorces?
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00:00
I mean overarching difference between
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same-sex marriage and traditional
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marriage is that same-sex marriage was
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not legal in the state of Minnesota
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until 2013 so technically when you look
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at the term of a marriage in a same-sex
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relationship it didn’t start before 2013
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you could be in a 50-year committed long
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term partnership with the same person
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but only married for six years now in
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2019 so Minnesota law when dividing
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property assets and liabilities it
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divides the marital estate and it
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defines marital as assets or liabilities
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accrued or incurred during the marriage
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so in a long term like to use my example
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a long term 50-year partnership between
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two committed people you would only look
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at six years of their estate when you’re
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looking at division or some people might
01:00
might feel that it’s more equitable to
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look at the whole 50-year partnership
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and what were what was the what were the
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assets that were accrued during the
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50-year partnership as opposed to the
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technical six-year marriage so that’s
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something that comes up during same-sex
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divorces when the statute just the words
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Express words of the statute say use the
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words marital a lot and the a marital
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relationship in a same-sex relationship
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often is artificially shorter than what
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may be the partnership that had
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developed for years another legal issue
01:33
that comes up with same-sex marriages
01:35
custody of a child because often in a
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same-sex relationship one or neither of
01:42
the parents are the biological parents
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of a child so to establish custody there
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may be there’s different ways to do that
01:49
for example two lesbian partners if they
01:52
have a child together typically or often
01:55
one one of the partners will actually
01:58
carry the child and have the child and
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they may have used a sperm donor to
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conceive the child so when that child is
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born one of the mothers is a biological
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mother the other mother may or may not
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have a legal relationship a legal
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parental relationship with that shy
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she may be the adoptive mother in that
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case there is a parental relationship
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there but for determining custody
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legally under the statute when you’re
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talking about who’s a legal parent to
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whom you have to look at some different
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different things different options when
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you’re when you have a same-sex couple
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just because the same-sex couple aren’t
02:33
both going to be but the biological
02:34
parents of a child
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[Music]
Minneapolis, MN family law attorney Katie Kelley talks about the unique aspects of handling a same-sex divorce.
