Cathy Marino-Thomas (left), co-executive director of Marriage Equality New York, married her wife, Sheila, in 2004 in Massachusetts.
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By Joelle L. Quartini
Friday, August 01, 2008
New York’s same-sex couples can get married in Massachusetts.
In a monumental victory for same-sex couples throughout the country, Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick on July 31 signed a bill repealing a 1913 law that barred out-of-state couples from marrying in Massachusetts if it would be illegal in their home state.
In 2003, the Massachusetts high court ruled the state must allow same-sex marriage equality, making it the first state in the union to do so (earlier this year, California became the second, also by court ruling).
“The sky has not fallen, the earth has not opened to swallow us all up, and more to the point, thousands and thousands of good people—contributing members of our society—are able to make free decisions about their personal future, and we ought to seek to affirm that every chance we can,” Patrick said.
Massachusetts has performed more than 10,000 same-sex marriages since it was legalized in 2004.
The Massachusetts House of Representatives passed the bill on July 29, just two days before the end of the legislative session, when Patrick signed the bill into law.
The House also added an emergency preamble for the bill to take effect as soon as the governor signed it, as opposed to the standard 90-day waiting period.
“It’s a wonderful thing for New York couples wanting to marry, because they now have an easily accessible location to get married in," said Robert Voorheis, co-executive director of Marriage Equality New York. “And most importantly, when they get back to New York, they’ll be recognized,” something he said heterosexual couples take for granted.
On May 29, N.Y. Gov. David Paterson directed all state agencies to comply with an earlier court ruling and recognize legally performed out-of-state same-sex marriages.
But state agencies aren’t the only ones recognizing same-sex marriages. Many companies already do so, particularly for their employees who got married in Canada, where gay marriage is legal. Lambda Legal, a national LGBT civil rights group , has compiled a list of agencies that also give “automatic respect” to same-sex marriages.
David Buckel, Lambda Legal’s marriage project director, said that same-sex couples who marry in Massachusetts will not need to register their marriage or take any further action when they get back to New York.
The process should work the same as any opposite-sex couple who leave their state to marry.
“They don’t really give it a thought,” Buckel said of heterosexual couples. “They just say they’re married and walk through life.”
Massachusetts joins California and Canada in allowing same-sex couples to marry with no residency requirement. When Massachusetts began performing gay marriages, New York was one of three states, including New Mexico and Rhode Island, that have no laws opposing gay marriage. After the New York high court ruled against marriage equality in July 2006, New Yorkers could no longer marry in Massachusett because of the 1913 law.
In California, however, a ballot initiative threatens same-sex marriages. In November, voters in that state could ban gay marriage by passing Proposition 8. If it passes, any marriages performed there could be in legal jeopardize.
Buckel called Massachusetts “forward thinking and budget minded.”
The Massachusetts Office of Housing and Economic Development estimated that more than 51,000 gay couples live in New York State and that 21,000 of them will get married in Massachusetts, along with 11,000 couples from surrounding states, creating 330 new jobs and an $111 million economic boost for the state.
Mass. Gov. Patrick’s 18-year-old daughter came out publicly as a lesbian in June.
The day before the Massachusetts governor signed this the bill into law, the New York’s governor was calling a special budget session to address the state’s fiscal emergency. This, Buckel said, begs the question, “Why not let same-sex couples marry in New York and benefit from the millions of dollars in revenue?”
The New York State Assembly has passed a Marriage Equality bill and the governor has pledged to sign it, but the Senate has yet to take up the measure, let alone pass it.
Until that happens, gay New Yorkers have one more option for their wedding plans: Massachusetts.
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