Pioneer Same-Sex Marriage Couple to Divorce: ‘This isn’t Some Sort of Kim Kardashian Thing’

The first same-sex couple to be legally married in Los Angeles County are calling it quits three-and-a-half years after their historic wedding.

Robin Tyler and Diane Olson were plaintiffs in a 2008 California Supreme Court lawsuit that ruled a ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. On June 16, 2008, the women were the first of 18,000 gay couples to wed during the six-month window that California sanctioned same-sex marriage: Later in 2008, voters passed Proposition 8 which banned same-sex marriage. Lawmakers opposed to the ban are working to bring it before the Supreme Court in 2012. The passage of Prop 8 did not invalidate any of the prior legal marriages in the state, but it is unclear if either woman will be able to legally marry again.

Tyler, who is the CEO of Robin Tyler International Tours and Cruises for Women, spoke to The Daily about the perceived significance of her divorce.

People say to me, 'You were like the poster women for gay marriage,' Tyler said. Well, Rosa Parks was the poster child for riding on a bus, but she didn't spend the rest of her life riding buses.

It's a divorce, not a gay divorce, she continued. We had a very successful, happy relationship for a long time.. this isn't some sort of Kim Kardashian thing.

The Daily was unable to reach Olson for comment, and Taylor said she did not know where her estranged wife was living.

Sources for The Daily story did not appear to believe the divorce would have a catastrophic effect on the fight to legalize same-sex marriage.

It's hurtful for the community only in mourning for one another, otherwise I don't think it impacts the community in any other greater way, Win Crast, a television writer and producer who is also an activist, told The Daily. I think that fighting for something as long we fought for can take its toll.

I'm sure they are under a ton of pressure because they were this poster marriage for the movement, gay rights activist Rakefet Abergel said, adding that the marriage dissolution just kind of proves even more that we are normal people with the same problems.

Taylor expressed a similar sentiment.

I am really glad we fought for it, I don't regret it and I don't regret my marriage, Tyler said. Fifty percent of heterosexual marriages end in divorce and we are no different than everyone else.