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Abby Tolchinsky and Ellie Wertheim, writing for the New York Law Journal, argue that "genuine marriage equality" has not yet been achieved - the passage of New York's Marriage Equality Act notwithstanding - because states across the nation are not obligated to recognize an out-of-state same-sex marriage.

In other words, if you get married in New York, your marriage will not be recognized as valid in a state that formally bans recognition of same-sex marriages performed out-of-state. The authors cite Virginia as an example of one state that would not recognize your marriage.

Similarly, Virginia would not enforce the provisions of a divorce decree coming out of a same-sex relationship, either.

On June 24, 2011, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law a bill that substantially leveled the playing field for same-sex couples looking to get married in New York State. This happened amid a flood of protest. There are those who believe that same-sex marriage will lead to society's downfall, and there are those who believe that same-sex marriage is a human rights issue.

It turns out that divorce makes math (and normal development of social skills) more difficult for children whose parents go through divorce. But it isn't until the child's parents actually start divorce proceedings that math and social skills start to dip, according to a study done by University of Wisconsin-Madison's Hyun Sik Kim.

As Bernd Debusmann of Reuters reports, Kim said, "My original prediction was that children of divorce would experience negative impacts even before formal divorce processes began. But my study finds that this is not the case."

Call your lender and ask to have your ex-spouse's name removed from the mortgage. If your lender agrees, you can save the money you otherwise would have spent on refinancing. As the New York Times reports, this request is not well known among those who have just come out of divorce.