(NBC) - A Texas judge's decision to grant a divorce to a gay couple could open the door to same-sex marriages in the state.
Only five states in the union recognize same sex marriages, and Texas currently isn't one of them.
The Travis county judge's decision to grant Angelique Naylor and her former partner a divorce has the potential to affect thousands of gay couples in Texas.
"More and more states are recognizing same sex marriage and passing laws and amendments that grant them," said Jennifer Cochran, Naylor's attorney. "More and more people are moving to the state of Texas because of the economy, so the Texas courts have to deal with this issue."
That might happen very soon. One day after the judge granted Naylor her divorce Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott stepped in stating:
"The Court has no legal authority to grant this divorce, and as a result, the State must intervene in this case to defend the Texas Constitution."
Abbott's statement argues that because the law and the Constitution of Texas defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman, voidance, not divorce, is the proper remedy in this case. It's an option that Naylor said she wouldn't consider.
"I believed I would still be married to her outside of the state of Texas. It would interfere with anything either of us wanted to do to get on with our lives as divorced people," she argued.
While Naylor's ex originally opposed the divorce, Naylor said the legal process helped them come to an agreement that was in the best interest of their child, an agreement that could end up as the center of a debate in an appeals court.
"I'm not sure why the attorney general is choosing to intervene when the matter's settled and the family's finally at peace for the first time in a long time," said Naylor.
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