Ruling means same-sex NY couples can't marry in Massachusetts

BOSTON --A New York court's ruling that same-sex couples can't legally marry in that state shuts the door on gay couples there who wish to come to Massachusetts to marry, but it may not affect those who already received marriage licenses here, according to an attorney for out-of-state gay couples.

Michele Granda of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders said gay marriage wasn't expressly prohibited in New York when same-sex marriages began in Massachusetts in 2004, so her group considers at least 170 New York couples who received marriage licenses here before Thursday legally married.

New York's highest court ruled Thursday that state law limits marriage to between a man and a woman. The ruling said lawmakers have a legitimate interest in protecting children by limiting marriage to heterosexual couples.

After Massachusetts became the first state in the country to legalize gay marriage in 2004, couples from many other states began lining up to get marriage licenses here. But Gov. Mitt Romney directed municipal clerks not to give licenses to out-of-state couples, citing a 1913 law that bars couples from marrying in Massachusetts if their marriages would be prohibited in their home states.

Eight out-of-state couples -- including a New York couple -- challenged the law. In March, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that Massachusetts could use the 1913 law to bar gay couples from Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont from marrying here, but said the law was unclear in New York and Rhode Island, and sent that part of the case back to a lower court.

Judge Thomas Connolly held a hearing last week on the Rhode Island case, but has not yet issued a decision. No hearing had been scheduled in the New York case because parties on both sides were waiting for Thursday's ruling from the New York court.

Granda said the ruling makes it clear that gay couples from New York will not be able to come to Massachusetts to get married.

"This decision really is a pronouncement of New York law that says same sex couples cannot marry in New York. And because of that, same sex couples cannot come here to marry until New York changes its law," she said.

But Granda said that New York couples who did marry in Massachusetts before town clerks stopped issuing licenses to out-of-state couples "were properly married in Massachusetts."

"When they got married, there was no express prohibition in New York law that would have prevented them from getting married here," Granda said.

GLAD said 173 same-sex couples from New York have received marriage licenses in Massachusetts since gay marriages began. It is unclear how many of those couples said on their license applications that they intended to move to Massachusetts. The 1913 law only affects couples who planned to continue living outside Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Attorney General's Office, which defended the 1913 law, argued that Massachusetts risks a backlash if it flouts the laws of other states by marrying gay couples from states that prohibit it. A call for comment from the attorney general was not immediately returned Thursday.

Gay marriage opponents said they were pleased by the New York ruling, coming less than a week before the Massachusetts Legislature is expected to vote on whether a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would ban gay marriage should be put on the state ballot in 2008.

"The court ruled that marriage is between a man and woman because it's in the best interests of children. ... We totally agree with that stand," said Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, one of the main supporters of the constitutional amendment.