Legal Limbo

The 1913 law that will be used to prevent out-of-state same-sex couples from marrying in Massachusetts has not been enforced in decades because county clerks were directed to ignore it.

Enacted to avoid conducting interracial marriages for couples from the South, the law says that visiting couples may not marry in the Bay State if their marriage would be illegal in their own state. If they somehow evade this prohibition, the law says that their marriage will be "void."

According to the Boston Globe, the statute didn't simply fall into disuse. Instead, the state of Massachusetts proactively ordered town clerks to ignore it. This information, reported on Wednesday, makes the law's sudden revival more questionable. (source)

Well, it's going to be interesting to see if the clerks of Mass. will actually follow the Governor's order to enforce the 1913 law, a law that was put in place to prevent interracial marriage. All these years the law was ignored until now. Personally, I don't know if Kent and I will be going to Mass. to get married. It's very murky ground we are on.

Let's say that we go to Mass. to get married, it's not at all clear that Connecticut would honor it. There is no DOMA in the state of Connecticut that says that marriage is only between an man and a woman, so it's not really illegal here, but it's also not honored. Kent and I went to the Coventry Town Clerk and asked for a marriage license. We were refused and told that same-sex marriage is not recognized in Connecticut. Given that, if Massachusetts asks, there is no way that I can say that same-sex marriage is legal in Connecticut because we were formally refused a license.

I suppose it's just as well. I mean, I honestly don't want to come home across the state line only to have my marriage license reduced to a worthless piece of paper, without legal backing. I think that would be very difficult for me. To me, the marriage is a symbol of our love and commitment to each other, beyond the legal implications. To have my Town Clerk tell me that she is unable to give me a marriage license is one thing. But to actually hold a real marriage license given by a state, and then have that same marriage license not honored by my state would be very difficult for me.

It will be interesting to see what happens. We have talked about going to Providence where the clerks have said that they will not ask. If we do, the only recourse we will have on our return to Connecticut is to legally challenge our state.