...working for equal marriage rights for all Australians

31 July 2008

Massachusetts Opens Same-Sex Marriage To World
 

Massachusetts has joined California in allowing non-resident same-sex couples to marry in the state.

	Massacusetts Governor Deval Patrick has been a strong supporter of the repeal of the 1913 law.

The state House of Representatives voted 118 votes to 35 on Tuesday to repeal a 1913 law that prevented marriages between out-of-state couples if the marriages would not be legal in their home jurisdictions.

The Senate approved the law earlier this month with a unanimous voice vote.

Laws usually come into effect 90 days after the state governor signs the legislation but the bill contains a special clause stating it would become effective the moment the governor ratified it.

Governor Deval Patrick signed the bill at a noon ceremony today.

Although same-sex marriage has been provided by Massachusetts since 2003, the 1913 law prevented same-sex couples resident elsewhere from marrying in the state.

The original law was intended to prevent interracial marriages where the home state of the couple prohibited such marriages. In 1913, 38 US states prohibited marriage between people of different races.

The law will also allow same-sex couples resident outside the USA to marry there.

An analysis by the state Office of Housing and Economic Development found repealing the law would draw thousands of couples to Massachusetts, boosting the economy by $US111 million, creating 330 jobs and generating $US5 million in taxes and fees over three years.

The study assumes New York state would provide more than 21,000 couples with New Hampshire, New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, and Maine bringing the total to more than 30,000 in the first three years.

Michael Thorne, 55, and his partner, James Theberge, 50, of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, said they planned to marry in Provincetown. Thorne said they had declined to register as domestic partners in Maine, where same-sex marriage is illegal, because it would have felt like "willingly going to sit in the back of the bus."