Gay Couples Line Up for Mass. Marriages

"It's been an emotional roller coaster," said Marianne Duddy-Burke, 43, of the period since the SJC decision. She plans to be married to her partner of 10 years at a Boston hotel in June, but added a clause to the reservation contract so she would not lose her deposit if legal circumstances change.

Gloria Bailey of Orleans, Mass., said that Monday would be "the culmination of a lifelong dream." She and Linda Davies, her partner of 33 years, were among the couples whose lawsuits led to the November court decision. They gathered with the six other plaintiff couples for a "rehearsal brunch" Sunday in Brookline, Mass., and plan to be married on Cap Cod's Nauset Beach.

All couples planning to marry Monday must have submitted their applications, then paid a fee to waive the required three-day waiting period before picking up their licenses. There is no way of knowing how many couples will be married here in the coming weeks, or who will be first.

As of Friday afternoon, Fenway Community Health, a Boston health center that caters to gay patients, had conducted more than 450 premarital blood tests. More than 100 others had been scheduled.

Towns with large gay populations, such as Northampton and Provincetown, also expected many applicants.

Even harder to predict is how many couples from outside Massachusetts will be traveling here to marry. Invoking a 1913 statute that has rarely been enforced in recent years, Gov. Mitt Romney (R) declared that same-sex couples who live in other states are ineligible to marry in Massachusetts because they cannot legally marry in their own states.

Calling that interpretation discriminatory, officials in Provincetown voted last week to marry out-of-state couples, and clerks in Worcester and Somerville have indicated they also will. Other cities, including Boston and Cambridge, have said they will follow Romney's guidelines, but will not require proof of residency.

Romney has threatened legal consequences against clerks who do not follow his guidelines. He said licenses issued to out-of-state couples would be "null and void," a stance that is expected to be challenged in court.

At least two gay couples traveled from New York to Boston last weekend, as part of a group organized by the Civil Marriage Project, which last year arranged similar trips to Canada. Robin Goldman and Cris Beam said they plan to apply for a marriage license Monday in Somerville and to marry there May 20.

"I certainly don't discourage couples from out of state from coming here, I just tell them what the consequences are," said J. Mary Sorrell of Amherst, Mass., who became a justice of the peace in February because she wanted to help gay couples marry. She said she expects to officiate at 24 same-sex weddings in the next two weeks, including five for out-of-state couples.

Staff writer Alan Cooperman in Cambridge contributed to this story.