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Massachusetts high court upholds discriminatory legal quirk in Mass. law — Gov. Romney's "gay exception" against out-of-state couples seeking to marry

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 30, 2006, New York, NY

PRESS CONTACT
Samiya Bashir
Tel: 212-851-8418 x6, Mobile: 917-617-8660
Email: samiya@freedomtomarry.org

MASS. HIGH COURT UPHOLDS DISCRIMINATORY LEGAL QUIRK IN MASS. LAW — GOV. ROMNEY'S "GAY EXCEPTION" AGAINST OUT-OF-STATE COUPLES SEEKING TO MARRY

Disappointing decision leaves the door open for New York and Rhode Island residents

DECISION CAME DOWN THIS MORNING, THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2006

New England equal rights leaders Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) called today's decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Cote-Whitacre et al v. Department of Public Health a "disappointment." GLAD's suit challenged the antiquated barrier. Read the decision here.

"It is an accident of history that Massachusetts, the first state to end the exclusion of committed gay couples from marriage, is one of a handful still subject to this archaic 1913 law born of now-discredited race discrimination in marriage," said Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, marriage equality expert, and author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality and Gay People's Right to Marry (Simon & Schuster).

"Most Americans are free to marry where they choose, and we've all seen friends and relatives exercise their right to get married away from home," said Wolfson. "Last week's Pew Poll (read it here) confirmed that the more people see real married gay couples and realize that families are helped and no one hurt, the more opposition drops. Today's ruling allowing another 'gay exception' to the freedom to marry sadly means that people's ability to see and understand why marriage matters to these committed couples will take more time than we'd hoped."

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Freedom to Marry is the gay and non-gay partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide. Launched in 2003, Freedom to Marry is headed by Evan Wolfson, nationally recognized as a central "architect of the marriage equality movement." Freedom to Marry guides and focuses this social justice movement on a nationwide level, serving as a strategy and support center for national, state, and local partners, a catalyst that drives and shapes the national debate on marriage equality, and an alliance-builder fostering support from non-gay allies.