The Ridiculous State Of Gay Marriage In The U.S., Illustrated By Fab.com CEO's Recent Marriage

Thomas Goldberg, Jason Goldberg's ex-husband

Jason Goldberg, the CEO of e-commerce startup Fab.com, just married his boyfriend, Christian Schoenherr, over the weekend.

Before he could marry Schoenherr, though, he had to take care of a not-so-small matter: his previous marriage to his ex, Thomas Goldberg, whom he'd wed in Canada years ago, when same-sex marriage wasn't legal anywhere in the U.S.

Because same-sex marriage was illegal in the U.S., so too was same-sex divorce. (A ridiculous state of affairs.)

It's perfectly legal to go to Canada and get married on a visit. But to get a divorce, you actually have to reside in Canada. (Also, a ridiculous state of affairs. If they were a mixed-gender couple, their Canadian marriage would be viewed as valid here and they could just get divorced here.)

Until New York's move last year to legalize same-sex marriage, and with it, same-sex divorce, the Goldbergs were stuck in a legal limbo. 

"You have to prove you are divorced from any previous marriage in order to get married, so our attorneys had us divorced in New York even though we were never actually married in New York," Jason told us. "It's complicated but we worked it out."

This is not a new topic of conversation for Jason, or his now ex-husband Thomas. They discussed the sad state of gay marriage and divorce in "Start Me Up," a documentary video about the launch of Fab.com, then known as Fabulis. At the time, they were split up, but still on friendly terms—friendly enough to work together.

"I have a lot of problems with Thomas," Jason said in the documentary. "But I also think he could be helpful here."

Fab ended up changing direction from a gay social network to its current, wildly successful incarnation as a purveyor of high-design lifestyle accessories. Thomas briefly worked as Fabulis's West Coast manager. He's now an associate director of social media at Digitas, and he doesn't list Fab or Fabulis on his LinkedIn profile.

Goldberg and his new husband donated $100,000 to promote the cause of marriage equality—an effort that may well spare other same-sex couples from the kind of legal headaches they had to go through.

Good! We wish Goldberg and Schoenherr many happinesses.

In the meantime, we welcome to the inevitable headaches of same-sex marriages—like figuring out the crazy extra tax paperwork they'll have to file.

Here's "Start Me Up," the documentary about Fab's early days before it discovered daily deals:

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