Gay couples in US are one step closer to marriage in Massachusetts

Posted on July 22, 2008
Filed Under Gay News Blog

Same-sex couples in the United States are one step closer to being able to marry in Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Senate voted Tuesday to repeal a 1913 law that has been used to bar gay couples residing in other states from marrying in Massachusetts. The law prohibited couples from obtaining marriage licenses if they could not legally wed in the states in which they reside.

After Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to allow gay marriages in 2004, Mitt Romney, who was then governor of the state, ordered town clerks to enforce the little-known law and to deny licenses to couples from other states.

Critics of the statute, including Deval Patrick, a Democrat who is the first black governor of the state, said it carried a racist taint and needed to be repealed.

The law dates to a time when the majority of states still outlawed interracial marriages. Opponents said the law was designed to smooth relations with those states. Massachusetts has allowed interracial marriages since 1843.

Gay couples in US are one step closer to marriage in Massachusetts
International Herald Tribune, France