BREAKING NEWS: Out-of-state homosexual 'marriages' on East Coast horizon Steve LeBlanc - Associated Press Writer - 7/15/2008 2:15:00 PM
BOSTON - The Massachusetts Senate has voted to repeal a 1913 law used to bar out-of-state homosexual couples from marrying in the state. The law prohibits couples from obtaining marriage licenses if they couldn't legally wed in their home states.
After Massachusetts became the first state to allow homosexual marriages in 2004, then-Gov. Mitt Romney ordered town clerks to enforce the little-known law and deny licenses to out-of-state couples. The repeal effort has the support of state Democrats and Governor Deval Patrick, whose 18-year-old daughter announced last month she is a lesbian.
Critics fear repealing the law would open the homosexual marriage floodgates. Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, which opposes same-sex marriage, said the law is in sync with federal constitutional protections guaranteeing individual states the right to define marriage. "It is an issue of one state honoring the rights of other states," he said, but conceded the California ruling was a setback. "The green light has been given to try to export this radical social experiment from coast to coast."
Despite the introduction of homosexual marriage in Massachusetts and California, most other states have statutes or constitutional amendments specifying that marriage is between a man and a woman, and denying recognition to same-sex unions. The federal government also does not recognize such unions.
The Massachusetts House is expected to vote on the measure later this week.
Mass. House votes to open gay weddings to all BOSTON — The Massachusetts House voted Tuesday to repeal a 1913 law that had been used to block gay marriages involving out-of-state couples, all but assuring that the state will allow samesex couples to wed regardless of where they live. The 118-35 vote came after the state Senate approved the repeal earlier this month, and Gov. Deval Patrick has said he will sign the bill. The measure requires one more procedural vote in each chamber before it goes to the governor. “Sometimes what you hope and pray for actually happens, which is kind of overwhelming,” Michael Thorne, 55, of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, said after telling his 6-year-old son his parents could soon get married. Thorne and his partner of 25 years, James Theberge, have an Aug. 18 wedding planned in Provincetown.
It looks like this is a smart ECONOMIC move by Mass.. Their state will be flooded with gays seeking legal marriage and will be paying for licenses. And I'm sure they will also stay in the state for a few days, (honeymoon?) and spend even more money that will boost Mass's economy.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Federal marriage law sees 1st challenge from Mass. lawsuit calling it 'discriminatory' By DENISE LAVOIE AP Legal Affairs Writer
BOSTON (AP) -- Massachusetts has challenged the federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, calling it "discriminatory and overreaching," and supporters say other states could follow suit. The state, the first to legalize gay marriage, sued the U.S. government Wednesday over the Defense of Marriage Act. The law interferes with the right of Massachusetts to define and regulate marriage as it sees fit, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said. The 1996 law denies federal recognition of gay marriage and gives states the right to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. Massachusetts is the first state to challenge the law. Its lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, says the approximately 16,000 same-sex couples who have married in Massachusetts since the state began performing gay marriages in 2004 are being unfairly denied federal benefits given to heterosexual couples. "They are entitled to equal treatment under the laws regardless of whether they are gay or straight," Coakley said at a news conference. Besides Massachusetts, five other states - Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Iowa - have legalized gay marriage. Gay marriage opponents in Maine said Wednesday that they had collected enough signatures to put the state's pending law on the November ballot for a possible override. Supporters of gay marriage predicted that other states where same-sex marriage is legal will also challenge the federal law. "Every state has the right to determine who it will allow to marry, and the federal government always respects those decisions by states ... except in this case," said Arline Isaacson, co-chair of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus. "(Coakley) is going right for that vulnerability in the law," she said. The lawsuit, which argues the act "constitutes an overreaching and discriminatory federal law," focuses on the section of the law that creates a federal definition of marriage as "a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.".......................>>>>...........>>>>>...........http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/s.....amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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