Divorce Attorneys
Massachusetts Gives New Push to Gay Marriage in Strong Ruling
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“This case will determine the future of marriage throughout America,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. “If same-sex couples `marry’ in Massachusetts and move to other states, the Defense of Marriage Act will be left vulnerable to the same federal courts that have banned the Pledge of Allegiance and sanctioned partial-birth abortion.” Sandy Rios, president of Concerned Women for America, said “if the court is allowed to get away with these decisions with no accountability, it is the beginning of the crumbling of our democracy.” Proponents of same-sex marriages said they were hopeful that the Massachusetts ruling might lend legitimacy to such unions in other states. “We are really facing this onslaught of religious- and political-right attacks across the country, but we are hoping that fair-minded people will reject it and will reject this culture war,” said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Legal experts said there would inevitably be legal challenges filed by same-sex couples who marry in Massachusetts and move to other states. “There’s going to be a fist fight in Ohio,” said Arthur Miller, a Harvard law professor. “There’ll be a situation, for example, in which a spouse of a couple married in Massachusetts but living in Ohio tries to inherit and make claims, and that will end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.” Same-sex couples in Massachusetts and other states began marriage plans, but several said they were proceeding cautiously. “When I see those first couples coming from City Hall, I’ll say, `it’s real, but it’s really real,’ ” said Bev Kunze, 48, a telecommunications manager in Boston who plans to marry her partner of 11 years, Kathleen McCabe, 52, a city planner. Fred Kuhr, 36, the editor of In Newsweekly, a newspaper for gay men and lesbians, plans to marry his partner, Kip Roberson, 39, director of the Sharon, Mass., public library. But he said, “There are still roadblocks in the way, and even though this is a great day in terms of this issue, I’m not jumping up and down and walking down the aisle just yet.” The prospect of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts raises practical questions: What will life be like for couples who marry here and move back to a state that outlaws same-sex marriages? Or for couples in Massachusetts who would be entitled to state marriage benefits but not federal benefits, like the right to file taxes jointly or qualify for Social Security payments? Indeed, in a dissenting opinion on Wednesday, Justice Martha B. Sosman listed some discrepancies. For example, she noted, same-sex couples would be ineligible for federal health care or nursing home benefits, and couples living in other states would not have the right to get divorced there. |
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