Mass. Senate Repeals Gay Marriage Barrier
By AP from the NYTimes on the Web, May 20, 2004
BOSTON -- The state Senate has voted to repeal a 91-year-old law that Gov. Mitt Romney has used to argue out-of-state gay couples can't tie the knot in Massachusetts, though odds of its permanent repeal are slim.
The Democrat-controlled Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to rescind the 1913 statute that forbids nonresidents from marrying here if the union would not be legal in their home state. Since no other state allows gay marriage, Romney argues that out-of-state couples are prohibited from marrying in Massachusetts.
For the law to be permanently wiped from the books, however, the repeal would have to get through the far more conservative House and then survive a certain veto by Romney.
Democratic state Sen. Jarrett Barrios, a gay lawmaker from Cambridge who sponsored the repeal, cited the 1913 law's "shameful origins" -- it was enacted as a way to bar the recognition of interracial marriages.
"It was clear there was a large majority offended by the racist nature of the statute, that it has never been enforced in the last 40 years, and that it was inappropriately being used to discriminate against some families in the Commonwealth," Barrios said.
Senate Minority Leader Brian Lees, a Republican, supported the repeal but said Romney was just doing his job. "The governor is enforcing the law that is on the books," Lees said. "I happen to think it's archaic too."
Romney has said that any licenses issued to nonresidents who have no firm plans of moving to Massachusetts will be deemed null and void.
He also threatened legal action against clerks who knowingly defied his residency edict.
"This law is not Gov. Romney's invention," said Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom.
"This is the law of the land and the governor cannot pick and choose which laws to enforce."
After gay marriage became legal in Massachusetts on Monday, Romney's legal office requested copies of all marriage applications submitted by gay couples in Provincetown, Somerville, Springfield and Worcester -- four municipalities that have defied Romney's residency requirement.
Gay rights activists fear that the governor wants the records in order to ask a court for an injunction barring clerks from issuing licenses to out-of-state couples.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Romney's office had received the requested records from Provincetown and Springfield but not from Somerville or Worcester.
"There are a handful, a tiny handful of cities and towns, whose clerks have made public statements that they will not follow the law," said Fehrnstrom.
"We are reviewing what is taking place in those jurisdictions but have made no decision as to enforcement."
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