NEWS FLASH

Ohio Judge Refuses To Divorce Lesbian Couple | A Franklin County judge refused to divorce a lesbian couple, citing Ohio’s 2004 constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Judge Jim Mason ruled that he could not divorce Laura Christina Thompson and Evangeline Grace Roller because their union had no legal effect in Ohio — though the same court granted two gay men a divorce just a few days earlier. In the earlier case, a different judge determined he could dissolve the marriage even if it had no legal effect in the state. The Ohio Campaign to Protect Marriage has argued Ohio courts cannot divorce same-sex couples because that would acknowledge the couples were, in fact, married.