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Mass. court hears out-of-state gay rights challenge

Posted on: Thursday, 6 October 2005, 17:25 CDT

By Jason Szep

BOSTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts' highest court heard a lawsuit on Thursday that seeks to give same-sex couples from other states the legal right to marry here in a case that could turn the liberal New England state into America's gay marriage capital.

A lawyer for eight gay couples from neighboring states urged Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court to strike down a 1913 law that prevents them from marrying in the only U.S. state that allows same-sex marriages.

"These couples deserve and want the right to marry and they should be given that right to marry," Michele Granda, a lawyer at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, which is representing the couples, told reporters after the hearing.

Her organization also brought the lawsuit that led to the court's 2003 decision that it was unconstitutional to ban gay marriage, paving the way for America's first same-sex marriages in May the following year. Gay marriage has since become a socially divisive issue across the country.

Assistant Attorney General Peter Sacks defended the statute, telling the hearing it was enforced evenhandedly for heterosexual and same-sex couples and that Massachusetts must respect laws in other U.S. states.

After Massachusetts legalized gay marriage, Republican Gov. Mitt Romney ordered town clerks to invoke the 92-year-old law that bars out-of-state couples from marrying in Massachusetts if their own states fail to recognize the union. He told governors in other states that gay couples residing outside his state could not marry in Massachusetts.

That forced town clerks such as Laurence Pizer to rebuff hundreds of marriage applications from gay and lesbian couples from out of state.

'UNCOMFORTABLE SITUATION'

"We have to ask them where they are from, and when they say they are from out of state we then have to ask them whether they are a heterosexual couple or a gay couple," said Pizer, a clerk in the Massachusetts town of Plymouth.

"Once we do that we are put in an uncomfortable situation of interpreting other states' laws," he said.

Pizer and clerks from 12 other Massachusetts towns launched their own lawsuit on Thursday in the same court, saying they lacked the resources needed to interpret gay marriage laws in other states. They want the 1913 statute abolished.

It may take the court months to issue a ruling, but other states are watching closely.

If the court strikes the law down, thousands of gay and lesbian couples nationwide could come to Massachusetts to wed, adding to the 6,500 gay couples who have married since the state legalized gay marriage in 2004. Some may also cite the ruling in demanding marriage rights in their home states.

"What happens in Massachusetts has always mattered," said Michael Thorne who lives in neighboring Maine and joined the lawsuit with his partner, James Theberge. "Massachusetts has always been a leader when it comes to respecting the rights of other people. Regardless of what happens, a marriage license from Massachusetts can only help," he said.

Voters in 13 states approved constitutional amendments in the past year declaring their laws would recognize only marriage between a man and woman.

Vermont and Connecticut recognize same-sex civil unions. California, New Jersey, Maine, the District of Columbia and Hawaii each offer gay couples some legal rights as partners.

Source: REUTERS

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