She said Demorest’s longtime advocacy for marriage equality is counter to what she is doing with her own family as part of the couple’s split, according to Kyser.įor example, Demorest served 13 years on the national Human Rights Campaign board of directors, including as co-chair between 2002-2005 during its heyday in the fight for marriage equality.
Kyser said her shock with Demorest seemingly so willing to write off nothing close to a legal marriage led to the divorce filings. This means Kyser can further argue her claim that the couple should be considered common-law married due to the Obergefell ruling between July 1996, when they moved in together and January 1997, when the state banned common law marriage. “ shows that, but for the unconstitutional prohibition on same-sex marriage, the parties would have been married by common law in July 1996,” Kyser’s attorney, Rachel Snider, wrote in the initial divorce pleading filed in February 2018.ĭeKalb County Superior Court Judge Mark Anthony Scott denied Demorest’s Motion for Summary Judgment on Sept. Hodges decision “retroactively date the start of Kyser and Demorest’s marriage to July 1996, when Kyser moved into Demorest’s home.” Kyser is suing Demorest for a divorce using the unusual argument that Georgia’s common law marriage, which was banned in 1997, coupled with the Obergefell v. She accused Demorest of “setting her up for an undignified retirement,” according to LGBTQ Nation. Kyser said no because in part she said she gave up her job to raise the twins the couple adopted in 1999, and her only source of income right now is Social Security. The two officially broke up in December 2017, and Demorest wanted the couple to walk away with what was titled in their own names, according to a story in LGBTQ Nation.
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Lawrie Demorest, an Atlanta attorney with the renowned Alston & Bird firm, and Lee Kyser, a retired psychologist, are making headlines again, but this time over how to end their more than 20-year relationship. Lee Kyser slips a wedding band on Lawrie Demorest’s finger during their ceremony in 1998. An Atlanta lesbian couple that made national headlines more than a decade ago to have their same-sex relationship recognized as the same as heterosexual married couples by a private golf club are now in the midst of a messy divorce that includes arguing over what a legal marriage is.