May 17, 2004
NewsMax Wires

Photo: Laura Moskowitz, left, and Robin Shore, both of Cambridge, Mass., wait on the steps of Cambridge City Hall, Sunday, May 16, 2004, to receive one of the nation's first state-sanctioned gay marriage applications. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

For better or for worse, depending on which side of the ideological aisle one chooses, a divided America crosses a historic threshold tomorrow as state-approved marriages of same-sex couples take place in Massachusetts for the first time.

Promised a waiver of the normal three-day waiting period, the seven gay and lesbian couples who successfully sued for marriage rights in the state will wed before relatives, friends and supporters in Boston and three other towns.

The United States will become just the fourth country in the world where same-sex couples can tie the knot. (The others are the Netherlands, Belgium and three Canadian provinces.)

The couples' joy will be shared by gay-rights advocates in states such as New York, California, Washington and New Jersey where comparable lawsuits are moving forward.

"This isn't just one historic moment in Massachusetts," said Kevin Cathcart, executive director of the gay-rights group Lambda Legal. "It's the start of what will be a long period of progress and breakthroughs, with gay couples in other states also winning the right to marry."

For foes of gay marriage, the weddings will represent a stinging defeat - but one they hope will be reversed by a backlash among politicians and voters nationwide.

"What I'm starting to see is people who are apolitical, who never got involved before, saying, 'This is too much - we don't want same-sex marriage foisted on us,'" said Mathew Staver, president of the Florida-based legal group Liberty Counsel.

Both sides expect the issue to figure prominently in the November election, with Massachusetts serving as a rallying cry.

Candidates for Congress will face pressure to explain their position on a proposed federal constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage. Voters in Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Missouri and Utah - and probably several other states - will consider similar amendments to their state constitutions.

"It will be a national referendum about gays and gay marriage," said Rod McKenzie of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "We're the underdog when it comes to all these ballot measures. The scale is bigger than we've ever had to deal with."

In states with the ballot measures, divisive campaigns already are under way.

An Oklahoma gay-rights group, for example, took out newspaper ads showing an outline of the state with "Closed" stamped on it. The ad contended businesses would leave if voters approved the constitutional ban on gay marriage.

Also following the Massachusetts events will be the thousands of gay couples who married in recent months with the encouragement of local officials in San Francisco, Portland, Ore., New Paltz, N.Y., and other municipalities.

Those marriages are clouded by varying degrees of legal uncertainty, and even in Massachusetts there is a possibility that voters in 2006 could approve a constitutional ban on the marriages.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/5/16/92616.shtml