California’s “Poster Couple” For Gay Marriage Are Getting A Divorce

In June 2008 Robin Tyler and Diane Olson became the first gay couple to legally wed in Southern California and they were quickly deemed the “poster couple” for gay marriage by MSNBC. Now Just four years later the women are getting a divorce.

Diane and Robin spent years of their lives battling for the right to become legally married in the state, they even went to a courthouse every year for seven years just so they could apply for a marriage license.

On Jan. 25 Robin Tyler filed for divorce and in an interview with NBC4 she said of her ending marriage:

“We’re human and we went through difficult times,” Tyler said. The marriage ran its course.

Tyler and Olson were friends for 40 years and were a couple for the last 18 years.

The turn in the couple’s marriage comes only a short period of time after Tyler made this statement following her marriage and the overturning of Proposition 8:

“For a bunch of people to tell me who I can love, who I can marry, who I can say this is my person, this is who I choose to spend the rest of my life with, it’s mindboggling to me that a few religious people can vote for our equal rights.”

While some opponents of gay marriage might point to this divorce as proof that gay marriage doesn’t work, I argue that it proves that just like heterosexual couple’s gay marriage can run the same natural progression as opposite sex couple’s who wed, fall out of love and move on.

Are you shocked by the announcement that gay marriages “poster couple” are getting a divorce?