Couples counted the days and wed
SOMERVILLE -- For gay and lesbian couples from outside Massachusetts, yesterday started a race to the altar.
Fearful that Governor Mitt Romney might find a way to block their marriages, some out-of-state gay couples were rushing to wed. Those who applied for licenses Monday showed up in Provincetown, Worcester, Somerville, and Springfield to pick up marriage licenses yesterday, after the three-day state waiting period expired. Others went to court for waivers of the waiting period so they could get married right away.
"We drove all night," said Stacey Harris, 35, of New Jersey, who said she and her partner, 29-year-old Jessie Harris, wanted to make sure they arrived in Somerville before Romney made a move. The couple, who met at a Boston gay pride parade and lived together in Somerville for 11 years, were married inside City Hall yesterday while their two children, 4-year-old Zion and 1-year-old Torin, looked on. Zion Harris, wearing a T-shirt that read "Let my parents marry!," held two flower bouquets for his parents as they tearfully embraced after the ceremony. Fellow newlyweds Darin Moore, 36, and Trey Watts, 30, of Oklahoma, snapped photographs.
Moore and Watts, who took a flight from Oklahoma City Wednesday night, said they headed to Somerville yesterday because they had heard it was easier to obtain an out-of-state license there. But as an extra precaution, the couple said they are subleasing an apartment in Northampton for six months. That way, they can claim dual residency, Moore said.
In Provincetown, a handful of couples from out of state were married. "They don't trust Governor Romney, and they feel he's going to do everything he can to stop" the weddings of couples with no immediate plans to move to Massachusetts, said Joan Drysdale, a justice of the peace in Provincetown. Nineteen of the 23 same-sex couples she had married by early afternoon yesterday were from out of state. All but one had obtained waivers.
In Worcester, clerk David Rushford performed six weddings, including the union of Katy Gossman, 40, and Kristin Marshall, 38, from Meriden, Conn. "We wanted to do it the first day we could in case, like in San Francisco, they changed their mind. We're afraid of that," said Gossman.
Gossman works for the Department of Justice, and she said she plans to submit forms today to get her new spouse, Kristin, on her health insurance policy.
"In the past, she's been denied benefits because we didn't have a state-certified marriage certificate," said Gossman, "Now we'll see what happens."
But Romney made it clear yesterday that, by refusing to issue a state-certified marriage certificate to out-of-state residents, he would make it difficult for Gossman and Marshall to apply for benefits.
Five same-sex couples went to the Springfield clerk's office yesterday to apply for licenses. Deb Neumayer and Robin Howell of Danbury, Conn., had already been turned away by Northampton's city clerk, so in Springfield, they wrote that they intend to reside in Massachusetts.
Outside the clerk's office, however, they said they will continue to keep their Connecticut home, where they are raising four children.
"Our biggest concern is the intent to reside. What is the definition of intent?" Neumayer asked. "We intend to reside in Massachusetts for two weeks in Provincetown in August. We'll file our joint tax return [to Massachusetts] for those two weeks. They can do what they want with that."
The four cities have been openly defiant of Romney's order to ban out-of-state marriages, but other towns, such as Attleboro and Fall River, also have allowed out-of-staters to marry.
Globe staff writer Jonathan Saltzman contributed to this report, which also included reporting from correspondents Brendan McCarthy and Gretchen Weber.
