Licensing for gay marriages planned

In the state's first official acknowledgment that gay and lesbian couples can legally marry in May, town and city clerks were notified this week that they will be trained to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples.

The clerks were given few details about the training, scheduled for early May, just days before same-sex couples can legally wed on May 17. It is the first signal that state officials are planning for gay marriage, despite Governor Mitt Romney's assertion that he is considering asking the Supreme Judicial Court to stay its decision allowing same-sex couples to marry.

The last official word town and city clerks had received about issuing marriage licenses to gay couples came the day after the SJC decision last November, when they were told not to issue licenses to same-sex couples until further notice.Linda E. Hutchenrider of Barnstable, president of the Massachusetts Towns Clerks' Association, said she notified clerks this week about the training after she was informed about it during a visit by an official from the state's Registry of Vital Records and Statistics, the division within the state Department of Public Health that oversees the issuance of marriage licenses.

Stanley E. Nyberg, registrar of the Registry of Vital Records and Statistics, also confirmed yesterday that the training would be held in early May.

But a spokeswoman for Romney, who as head of the executive branch of government controls the Department of Public Health, declined yesterday to acknowledge that the training was scheduled.

"I have no knowledge of training being scheduled," said Nicole St. Peter. "At the appropriate time, the administration will communicate with city and town clerks. Currently, it's premature to do that."

St. Peter said yesterday that Romney would not publicly comment on whether he will ask the SJC to stay its decision until after the Constitutional Convention, which will reconvene next week. The convention, which met once in February and once in March, is considering constitutional amendments that would ban gay marriage.

If the convention passes an amendment, Romney could make the argument that the SJC ruling should be stayed until the amendment goes before voters in 2006. Opponents of gay marriage have argued that allowing gay couples to marry could create legal chaos if voters eventually approve a ban.

Ron Crews, spokesman for the Coalition for Marriage, said he believed the state should not prepare for same-sex marriage in May until it was clear that all options to ban or postpone such marriages were exhausted.

"I think this is premature," Crews said. "We're still hopeful that the Legislature is going to pass an amendment next week that will give the voters the opportunity to support marriage, and that will give momentum for the governor to take some steps to ensure that marriage in the state will remain defined as it always has."

State officials also are preparing forms, scheduled to be available by May 17, with gender-appropriate language for same-sex couples who request marriage licenses, Hutchenrider said. "The attorneys are going over them," she said.

And the registry is working on other new vital records forms, such as birth records, where language may need to be changed to reflect same-sex couples, she said.

"It's great [clerks] are finally getting some training," said Mary Bonauto, the lawyer who represented seven same-sex couples before the SJC.

"The state has an obligation to make this process as orderly for people as possible," she said. "Certainly some folks are looking forward to getting married a great deal, and you'd hate to have it ruined in any way because of paperwork."

The primary unanswered question about the details of issuing marriage licenses to gay couples is whether couples who don't live in Massachusetts can be married here. Clerks say they are frustrated because they can't counsel out-of-state callers who want to marry in Massachusetts.

Currently, couples who want to marry are shown a list of legal impediments to their marriage, including whether they live in a state where their marriage would be void. Couples must then sign a form stating that their marriage would not violate anything on the list.

A state law from 1913 prohibits clerks from issuing marriage licenses to couples whose marriage would be "void if contracted" in their home state. No other state allows gay marriage, and 38 states have "defense of marriage" laws that specifically prohibit gay marriages.

Bonauto argued that forbidding out-of-state gay couples to marry in Massachusetts would "acquiesce to the discrimination" of other states. That section of the 1913 law, passed partly because some states then banned interracial marriage, has rarely appeared in state court decisions and therefore seldom has been interpreted by judges, she said.

Hutchenrider said she expected the training sessions for clerks, scheduled to be held in several locations around the state, to address such questions.

"People have been coming to clerks' offices saying, `I'd like to plan,' " said Laurence R. Pizer, Plymouth's town clerk. "The frustration we had was we couldn't answer. We're awaiting the ability to do so."

There are other unanswered questions. Normally, couples must apply for a marriage license three days before they can receive one, based on a state law that dates to colonial times. But couples who want to speed up the process can get a waiver for the waiting period from any judge in the state.

Clerks want to know whether same-sex couples could request similar orders from judges so they could get married as soon as May 17.

While some clerks expect only a few requests, the town clerk's office in Provincetown has received inquiries from 45 couples seeking to get married May 17, so many that the clerk's office has begun scheduling appointments for couples to apply for licenses beginning on May 17.

Town officials have recruited volunteers to help explain the rules to couples and type marriage licenses, said Aaron Leventman, assistant town clerk. Some out-of-state couples say they will try to get married whether or not their marriages would be valid, he said, adding, "They're just gung-ho to make a statement."

Kathleen Burge can be reached at kburge@globe.com.