First Divorce Filing For Same Sex Couple in Illinois

As of June 1, 2011, same-sex couples are permitted to apply for civil union licenses under the new Civil Union Act.  On the same historic date, another same-sex couple was filing for a divorce.

On Wednesday, June 1st, Mark Bayer filed his Petition for Dissolution at the Peoria County Courthouse, the first of two such petitions filed yesterday in Peoria and possibly the first same sex divorce filing in the state. The two men were married in Canada in 2006 and moved to Peoria two years later.  The Bayer case could set precedent for the application of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act to a same-sax couple.