Friday, August 9, 2002

A story published today by the Hartford Courant reports that Vermont resident, Glenn Rosengarten, 54, a retired Greenwich businessman, is believed to be the first person in the nation to use the courts in an attempt to legally dissolve a civil union outside of Vermont, the only state that recognizes such a union.

As early as next week, Rosengarten's lawyers will ask the Connecticut Supreme Court to hear the case, which has been dismissed by the state's Superior and Appellate courts. The lower court judges ruled that they had no jurisdiction over civil union matters.

Under Vermont law, civil unions can be dissolved in that state, like a divorce, after a couple has established residency for at least a year.

Gary Cohen, Rosengarten's lawyer, insists that the Connecticut case is not intended as a test - even though his client has the option of moving to Vermont to end his civil union.

"When a marriage is valid in the jurisdiction in which it is celebrated, and doesn't offend existing law, that marriage - no matter where it happened - is recognized in Connecticut, and that couple can get divorced in Connecticut," Cohen said.

The same recognition and right should be extended to couples who enter into legal civil unions, argues Cohen, a Greenwich divorce lawyer married to Rosengarten's former wife, the mother of Rosengarten's children.

Although the lower court decisions suggest that until Connecticut formally recognizes civil unions Rosengarten's legal effort will remain a long shot, his case illustrates the growing use of the courts by gays and lesbians to assert family and marriage-like rights - from child custody and property issues to marriage and divorce.

"It's simply becoming unworkable to create a whole new system of law for everything from divorce to child custody to property rights simply because some people are uncomfortable," said Mary Bonauto, a lawyer at the Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders.

Bonauto was involved in the lawsuit that led to the Vermont civil union legislation and is part of the legal team pursuing gay marriage in Massachusetts, a case that is currently on appeal.

At the Marriage Law Project in Washington, D.C., a nonprofit group that seeks to affirm traditional marriage, lawyer Joshua Baker said he has no quarrel with gays and lesbians having the right, for example, to visit an ill partner in the hospital.

But his organization, he said, continues to oppose gay marriage and associated attempts to "disaggregate," or separate, benefits such as child custody and adoption from traditional marriage.

"We seek to defend marriage as between a man and woman," Baker said, adding that although polls show a growing national acceptance of same-sex couples, his organization believes "the ballot box does not."

Rosengarten, who has HIV/AIDS and unrelated cancer, said his whole motivation for pursuing a legal end to his civil union is for closure and the peace of mind that his matters are in order.

"I'm just looking for a venue to deal with this in a legal and moral way," Rosengarten said. "Everybody should share the same civil rights, and if I want a divorce, I'm entitled to that - whether I've been married in Vermont or on the moon."