Musician Melissa Etheridge and her partner, actress Tammy Etheridge (formerly Tammy Lynn Michaels) announced last week that they have ended their nearly nine-year relationship.

Melissa and Tammy began dating shortly after Melissa’s 2001 split from longtime partner Julie Cypher. They became engaged and exchanged vows in California in 2003. They are considered “domestic partners” under state law. They did not legally marry during the five-month period that same-sex marriage was legal in California in 2008 – and, thus, are not considered spouses under state or federal law.

Tammy gave birth to the couple’s children – son Miller and daughter Johnnie Rose – in 2006 after insemination with sperm from an anonymous donor. Melissa is also the mother of two children, Bailey, 13, and Beckett, 11, with Cypher. Their biological father is legendary musician David Crosby.

Without the domestic partnership law, the couple’s “marital” assets – those assets they acquired during their partnership- would not be covered by California’s community property laws, which provide for the equal division of marital property upon divorce. Under the domestic partnership statute, however, domestic partners have the same community property and spousal support rights that married persons have.

The domestic partnership law also allows for a legal presumption that both parties to the partnership are parents of any children born during the partnership and grants the parents the same parental rights and responsibilities as a married couple. So, child support and child custody will be handled in this case just as in a divorce.

Library Topics: Same-sex marriage, same-sex divorce, same-sex parenting, community property, domestic partnership, spousal support, child support, child custody, California family law