Gay pair asking to be wed in Mass. say no ban in R.I.

A Massachusetts Superior Court judge heard arguments yesterday that a gay couple from Providence should be allowed to marry in the Bay State because Rhode Island law does not explicitly ban same-sex marriage.

``Massachusetts need not and should not search high and low for a barrier to marriage," said lawyer Michele Granda, who argued before Judge Thomas Connolly on behalf of Wendy Becker and Mary Norton, who were denied a marriage license in Attleboro in 2004.

``The court should look only for an express prohibition in the laws of another state and look no further," said Granda, a lawyer from Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders.

The issue was returned to superior court after the Supreme Judicial Court ruled in March that a rarely enforced 1913 state law bars couples from marrying in Massachusetts if they live in states where their marriage is banned. Although the state's high court upheld the law, a majority of the justices said the statute was applied too broadly to bar the marriage of three couples from Rhode Island and New York, where they said same-sex marriage does not appear to be expressly prohibited.

Connolly, whose decision is not expected for several weeks, will focus on whether Becker and Norton can be married in Massachusetts.

The state has allowed same-sex marriage since a landmark SJC decision allowed the practice to begin in 2004.

Peter Sacks, an assistant attorney general, argued in brief remarks that the couple should not be allowed to marry in Massachusetts because the wording of Rhode Island law -- which refers to marriage as the union of a ``female party" and a ``male party" -- is comparable to Vermont law, which the SJC majority said expressly banned same-sex marriage.

``We would ask the court to draw the analogy to Rhode Island law," said Sacks, who pointed out that the couple had not sought a marriage license in Rhode Island.

Becker and Norton, who have been together for 18 years, said they are optimistic the court will allow them to marry in the near future. The couple even spoke to their children, a 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son, in planning for the ceremony, they said.

``We feel like we've had a very long engagement," Norton, 46, said with a smile.

The couple said they intend to remain in Rhode Island. The state has shown promising signs of acceptance of same-sex marriage, Granda said, citing a 2004 decision by Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch to uphold the right of two former teachers, married in a same-sex ceremony in Massachusetts, to name each other as the beneficiary of their Rhode Island retirement plan.

``Rhode Island has a long history of being inclusive," Granda said.

The couple said they hoped that the example of more and more happily married gay couples would lead to greater acceptance by the public and lawmakers.