Cassandra B. Ormiston has found herself in the spotlight as one of two Providence women involved in Rhode Island’s first same-sex divorce case.

The Providence Journal / Kris Craig

PROVIDENCE — Cassandra B. “Cass” Ormiston, one of the two Providence women seeking Rhode Island’s first same-sex divorce, says she is no activist.

“This is the most political I have been — ever,” Ormiston said. “The most political thing I’ve ever done is come out — and to vote.”

Ormiston said some have questioned whether she and Margaret R. “Bobbie” Chambers are getting divorced to try to further “the gay agenda.” Not so, she said.

Ormiston, 60, and Chambers, 71, were together for a decade. “I was lucky to love and share a life with a very fine woman for all these years. It’s clear to both of us we’ll no longer go forward together, but I wish her well,” Ormiston said. “Now it’s up to the court to allow us the same right every other citizen has to end this marriage.”

Ormiston said she sees it as a human-rights issue — not a gay-rights issue. “I have the same right to fail as anyone else,” she said. “I’m not asking for any special treatment.”

Chambers and Ormiston married in Fall River in May 2004, shortly after Massachusetts became the first state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Chambers filed for divorce last year in Rhode Island Family Court, and Ormiston filed a counterclaim, with both citing “irreconcilable differences.”

The case is receiving national attention because it’s believed to mark the first time any of the same-sex couples married in Massachusetts have sought a divorce in another state. The Rhode Island Supreme Court is weighing this question: “May the Family Court properly recognize, for the purpose of entertaining a divorce petition, the marriage of two persons of the same sex who were purportedly married in another state?”

The Supreme Court invited friend-of-the-court briefs and received an initial round of 16 from groups ranging from the Utah-based Marriage Law Foundation to the Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders. The high court heard arguments Oct. 9 and has not yet issued a decision.

While the legal issues have been debated at length, little has been said about the two women involved in the case.

Chambers did not attend the Supreme Court arguments and, through her lawyer, declined to be interviewed. But Ormiston did attend the hearing and afterward she introduced her mother — Lila Baker, 82, of Lexington, Mich. — and her sister, Paula Thomas, 57, of Ann Arbor, Mich.

“My family, my dear friends, are here with me,” Ormiston said. “You must know how much that meant to me. But it was just one more day in their decades-long support of me and my minority.”

Ormiston said she’s surprised her divorce is receiving so much attention. “Who could see this coming? But it’s here,” she said as reporters gathered around her outside the courtroom. “I’m a proud and happy lesbian. I’m doing my best for all of us.”

During a recent interview at her home on Tenth Street, Ormiston said, “I’m OK about being in the position I’m in. But would I choose this? Absolutely not. Will I be relieved when it’s over? I can hardly wait. But I have to wait because the decision is in the hands of others.”

ORMISTON WAS BORN in Flint, Mich., in February 1947. Her father, who died in 2001, worked for General Motors as a regional comptroller. Her mother is a master gardener and herbalist. The family moved to St. Louis and to Cleveland, where she graduated from high school. She identified herself as a lesbian when she was 17½ but did not “come out” for more than a decade.

When she attended Ohio University, “you were necessarily in the closet,” Ormiston said. “There were no role models, no support groups.” And she left after a couple of semesters.

Ormiston went to work as a manager in retail sales but went back to college in 1978, attending Chatham College (now Chatham University) in Pittsburgh. At age 31, while pursuing a degree in women’s studies and history at Chatham, she came out. “It was easy because it was such an embracing and affirming environment,” she said. “And I was no longer a kid.”

After graduating, she moved to Sante Fe, N.M., heading a crew that put the finishing touches on new homes. She later worked as a division director for the Hilton hotel chain, and she worked for nonprofit groups, running thrift stores and doing consulting work.

In 1993, she met Margaret Chambers, who was on the board of one of the nonprofits. In 1995, Ormiston and Chambers moved to Durango, Colo. “We moved at precisely the right time to buy properties at good prices,” she said. They sold and rented residential properties.

In 2002, they bought a condo in Providence’s Wayland Square because Chambers, who had been married twice before, has a daughter and two grandchildren in Providence.

Ten months after they came to Rhode Island, Ormiston saw an ad for a Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University study of digital vs. traditional mammograms. She signed up and the test found breast cancer. In October 2003, she had a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. “They caught it so early I don’t even feel like a cancer survivor,” she said. “This is a good luck story.”

Ormiston and Chambers moved to a house on Everett Avenue and later downsized to a condo on Prospect Street.

They got married in May 2004. Chambers wrote about their marriage in a newsletter by Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays of Greater Providence. The headline was “Cass and Bobbie’s Whirlwind Wedding.”

“It was the morning of May 26,” Chambers wrote. “I’d just gotten up and read in The Providence Journal that Governor Romney had closed down the cities we’d anticipated going to, to be married. But Fall River was still open and not asking couples to prove Massachusetts residence to get a marriage license. I felt we had to go immediately or we’d be shut out. So I yelled up the stairs, where Cassandra was still sleeping, ‘Get up! We’re going to Fall River to get married. We’ve got to go now!’ ”

“We jumped into the car and drove,” Chambers wrote. “We didn’t eat breakfast. We didn’t have coffee. We didn’t even comb our hair. We just drove. We found City Hall and went to the clerk’s office.” There, they met two South Carolina men who “were in Fall River, just like us, trying to get our licenses before another door slammed.” They served as witnesses to the marriage of the two men, who then returned the favor as the city clerk read “lovely vows” written by her office.

In the interview, Ormiston said, “I couldn’t believe that at age 57, I was going to be able to marry the woman I loved. I never saw that coming. Change has come so quickly.”

She attributed that progress to “the tens of thousands of us who came out,” saying, “We were no longer silent. We were no longer invisible. We are your brothers, your sisters, your mothers, your fathers, your teachers, your police, your priests. We are everywhere.”

The good times did not last. Chambers filed for divorce in October 2006. “It was a surprise,” Ormiston said. “I’ve never understood why.”

Ormiston said the divorce has been “just plain awful” and she faces extra burdens, including the cost of protracted legal proceedings. “While it is true that Don Carcieri can pay for his lawyer’s fees from state funds, I cannot,” she said, referring to the fact that Governor Carcieri signed a $15,000 contract for a nationally known conservative lawyer to file a legal brief in the case.

When the Supreme Court heard arguments Oct. 9, one judge asked, “If this court should answer the question in the negative, what remedy is available to your client?” Chambers’ lawyer said one of the women could move to Massachusetts and live there for a year before seeking a divorce in that state, but he said it would be “extremely inappropriate” to force such a step.

After the hearing, Ormiston agreed, saying, “It’s a burden no one else has to bear. It’s something I will not do. Rhode Island is my home, and I look to the courts of Rhode Island to provide a fair and just remedy.”

Among those who attended the hearing was Austin R. Nimocks, senior legal counsel for the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, which filed a legal brief on behalf of the Family Research Council and the Rev. Lyle Mook, of South Kingstown. “We are disappointed the primary question was not asked, which is: What is marriage?” Nimocks said. “Marriage has always been between one man and one woman.”

Also, Nimocks said, “What the lawyers who argued the case failed to understand is the state has an interest in marriage. They view it as some sort of entitlement. The state is concerned about children. They are the next generation.”

Ormiston said, “Every single brief that I read opposing my right to divorce has based their opinion on their interpretation of God’s law. I find this incredible because to me people of faith truly are instructed to treat others as though they are the others, to love one another, to not judge.” She said, “To me, it seems they use their faith to validate their fear, their hatred and their right to exclude certain members of society from full freedom, full inclusion. And they are wrong.”

But Ormiston said a rabbi, Sarah Mack, who lives nearby, helped find clergy members to sign a legal brief saying not all local religious leaders oppose same-sex marriage or this divorce. “I greatly acknowledge the many members of our local clergy who have been vocal in their support of equal rights for all and specifically my rights in this situation,” she said.

Two days after the Supreme Court hearing, Ormiston spoke to a class at Rhode Island College as part of “National Coming Out Day,” and “had the privilege of watching a young woman come out” during the class.

Also, Ormiston said one of the students told her, “You are a rock star in our house,” and she took that to mean she was considered a “rock star” by the student’s parents as well as the student. “That’s how far we’ve come,” she said.

efitzpat@projo.com