Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Massachusetts to compete with California for wedding-tourism dollars
California is the only state in the nation that allows same sex couples who are not residents of the state to marry, and in the couple months since same sex marriage has become legal in California, there has been a tremendous boost in couples from out of state flying in and spending money on wedding ceremonies. When Massachusetts legalized gay marriage a few years ago, then Governor Mitt Romney pulled out a 1913 statute that said a marriage was not valid in Massachusetts if it would not be valid in the state in which the marrying couple resides in. This was meant to keep inter-racial couples from the South from fleeing to Massachusetts to get married, and now keeps gay couples from out of state from flocking to Massachusetts to get married. Howver, a bill on its way to Governor Deval Patrick would now allow out of state same sex couples to marry in Massachusetts. I guess they wanted a piece of the tourism dollars that California has been getting?
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I know New York couples who otherwise might have gone to California and are now planning to drive across the border to Massachusetts. (I once lived in Austerlitz, NY, and the nearest shopping was in West Stockbridge, MA).
Of course Gov. Paterson has made it easier by his executive order saying New York will recognize marriages from other states. If the Democrats win the state senate, as looks likely, and then control the legislature, same-sex marriage will probably be enacted in New York anyway, given Gov. Paterson's strong support.
The 1913 Massachusetts law, of course, was a vestige of racial segregation, designed to discriminate against African-Americans.
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