If a woman was married same sex in Vermont and now wants to get married in Arizona to a male does she need to get divorced?

Welcome to the complexity that exists in the current state of matrimony for same sex couples. I can't speak to Arizona law, but many, many states doe not recognize the Vermont, nor will the law of those states grant full faith and credit. While many states do not recognize same sex marriage, bigamy is illegal in almost all states. While you might not be a bigamist in some states, the expected repeal of DOMA and the widening of the recognition of same sex marriage means that some day, you would have to deal with that anyway. Bottom line, is, you need to get the Vermont marriage dissolved. This brings up another messy point. In a state where the statutes or constitution forbid the recognition of same sex marriage, you can't get a divorce or annulment from a same sex marriage from another state. You will have to travel to a state that both recognizes same sex marriage, and allows you to qualify to file for divorce as most states have residence requirements that have to be met. Good luck.

This is a very interesting question. It sounds like you are asking a hypothetical question. But, to the extent that you are seking legal counsel, I strongly urge you to contact an attorney at the very least in the jurisdiction where you intend to marry. This is not intended as legal advice and I am not licensed in either AZ or VT. The fact that some states recognize same-sex unions (as Civil Unions [or the like] or as a Marriage) and some do not makes this a very difficult issue. Let me do my best to point out some facts you may want to investigate with counsel. Vermont, as I understand it, previously had "Civil Unions" and now has "Marriage" for same-sex couples. So, if one is married in Vermont (or has a civil union or marriage in any of the states that allow them), that union will be recognized in other states that allow such unions (some allow for unions and some merely recognize the unions of other states). I do not believe Arizona has any kind of civil union law nor marriage for same-sex couples. In theory, that would make it (unwisely) seem okay to marry there. But I would give meaningful consideration to this issue and definitely consult a family law attorney in your jurisdiction familiar with issues related to the GLBT community to discuss this. Even though Arizona may not recognize the same-sex marriage today and may not consider the person marrying in Arizona a bigamist, typically, if a state adopts a civil union bill or extends the benefits of marriage to same-sex couples, they then recognize existing unions from other states. So the person could be a bigamist in AZ down the road. More importantly, if they move to or travel to any of the states that do recognize same-sex unions, even if that state does not have jurisdiction to enforce a bigamy law against the person who was married in VT and AZ (excepting possibly in Vermont?), they could still face serious issues having two spouses (each making claims to be entitled to the benefits of being married to the same person) . Complicating things even more is the fact that it is generally impossible to dissolve a same sex-sex union EXCEPT in a jurisdiction that recognizes the union to begin with. And while you can pretty much get married in any state, with or without residencey there, you can only dissolve a union generally in the state in which you currently reside (consult an attorney for residency status information) or in some cases, in the jurisdiction in which the union was formed - but on very limited grounds if you are not a resident there. Given the number of states that recognize some kind of same-sex union rights, including three additional states resulting from the recent elections, I would strongly suggest that a person already married (forget about gender or whether the marriage is recognized in ALL states) dissolve the marriage BEFORE entering to another. Hope this helps! I STRONGLY advise retaining good counsel to advise in this area before acting!