Massachusetts
governor Deval Patrick has issued an order to officials
stating that they must record the marriages of 26
out-of-state gay and lesbian couples whose
marriages were not recognized by former governor Mitt
Romney. On Friday, Ben Clemens, Patrick's chief legal
counsel, ordered the commissioner of the department of
public health, John Auerbach, to "bind and index" the
unions, reports The Boston Globe.
The state supreme judicial court ruled in March
2006 that Romney could invoke a law from 1913 to deny
out-of-state couples the right to marry in
Massachusetts if the law in their home state specifically
prohibits same-sex marriages.
As reported by the Globe, same-sex
couples from Rhode Island were the exception to the
rule as they were the only ones allowed to marry in
Massachusetts after a ruling acknowledged last
September that Rhode Island law does not specifically bar
same-sex couples from marrying.
According to Patrick's office, two of
those 26 couples whose marriages were not
recorded were from Rhode Island.
"It appears like the prior administration was
politicizing a routine administrative function," said
Kyle Sullivan, a spokesman for Patrick. "There was no
legal basis for separating these certificates in the
first place."
However, Romney spokesman Eric Fernstrom told
the Globe that the former governor was acting on
legal authority when he kept the marriages from being
recorded because Massachusetts law does not recognize
same-sex unions of couples from out of state.
Prior to Patrick's decision, the 26 couples had
already obtained marriage licenses in four towns in
which clerks defied Romney's orders. (The
Advocate)
