US:Ron Garber knew his former wife was living with another woman - and had taken her last name - when he agreed to pay her $1,250 a month in alimony.
What he didn't know was that the two women had registered with the state as domestic partners under a law that was supposed to mirror marriage law, Mr Garber said.
California marriage laws say that alimony ends when the former spouse remarries, and Mr Garber reasons he should be off the hook, given that domestic partnership is akin to marriage. But an Orange County judge has decided that registered partnership is cohabitation, not marriage, and that Mr Garber must pay.
"This is not about gay or lesbian," Mr Garber said. "This is about the law being fair." The case, which Mr Garber intends to appeal, highlights gaps between the legal status of domestic partners and of married couples, an issue the California supreme court is considering as it ponders whether to legalise same-sex marriage.
Proponents of same-sex marriage typically argue that gay couples will not have the full rights of heterosexuals until they too can marry. This case, however, shows how heterosexuals can be the collateral damage of the lesser legal status of domestic partnership.
If spousal support does not end with domestic partnership, "heterosexual men are the ones whose ox is being gored more often than not," said San Francisco family law attorney Diana Richmond.
Lawyers in favour of same-sex marriage are watching the Orange County alimony case and say they will cite it to the state Supreme Court as an argument for uniting gay and heterosexual couples under one system: marriage.
Mr Garber (51) said he favours same-sex marriage and has no issues about his former wife's decision to register with another woman. He said that he agreed to pay alimony for five years to his wife of 18 years, but that he would not have signed the agreement had she disclosed that she had become a domestic spouse a few months earlier.- (LA Times-Washington Post service)