Couple that made history for civil union are splitting

BRATTLEBORO -- The two women who entered into what is believed to be the first legally recognized same-sex union in the country are splitting up.

Carolyn Conrad has asked a court in Brattleboro to end the civil union she entered into with Kathleen Peterson moments after Vermont's civil unions law took effect on July 1, 2000.

Neither Conrad, 35, nor her lawyer would comment on the reason for the breakup.

Peterson, 46, wouldn't say why the relationship ended, either.

''All I want to say is that the civil union was a big source of pride for me, and now it's not," Peterson said.

In 2000, Brattleboro's town clerk, Annette Cappy, issued Conrad and Peterson their civil union license shortly after midnight.

Bari Shamas of Brattleboro, a founding member of the Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force, said same-sex relationships were prone to the same difficulties as heterosexual marriages. ''There's no proof that our relationships are any better than heterosexual relationships," Shamas said.

The most recent data available show that between July 1, 2000, and the end of 2004, 7,549 same-sex couples had entered civil unions in Vermont and that there have been 78 dissolutions.