City May Be First To Allow Gay Marriage

Cambridge is poised to become the first municipality in Massachusetts to take advantage of Tuesday’s decision by the state Supreme Judicial Court giving gay couples the right to marry.

City Councillors Brian P. Murphy ’86-’87 and E. Denise Simmons are co-sponsoring a resolution in advance of Monday’s City Council meeting that would instruct the city clerk’s office to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples as soon as possible.

The proposal comes despite a clause in Tuesday’s decision by the court delaying the effects of the judgment for 180 days to allow for legislative action. Officials are also uncertain about the city’s independent authority to issue the licenses.

Murphy said he expects the proposal to pass at Monday’s council meeting, though it may be amended or tabled until the legal questions can be addressed.

“Based on past issues that have come up, I would expect that we would have at least a majority,” Murphy said.

Phone calls to other City Councillors were not returned yesterday.

Cambridge City Clerk Margaret Drury said last night she is still unsure about the legality of the proposed resolution.

“There’s going to be a lot of legal analysis going on and I am going to hope for the benefit of the expertise of the city solicitor in trying to figure out what goes on here,” Drury said.

Drury noted that the state Department of Public Health oversees local licensing boards and can reject any issued marriage licenses as it sees fit.

The public health department sent a memo to town clerks following the decision, cautioning them not to issue licenses for gay marriages until the 180 day period has passed.

Gov. Mitt Romney, who disagrees with the decision, told the Associated Press the state would not recognize same-sex marriage licenses issued during the stay period.

Tuesday’s decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health paved the way for Massachusetts to become the first state to recognize gay marriage. In a 4-3 vote, the Court wrote that it “failed to identify any constitutionally adequate reason for denying civil marriage to same-sex couples.”

Cambridge has allowed gay couples to officially register as domestic partners since November 1992. But these same-sex partners do not enjoy the legal benefits that come with marriage.

Despite the uncertain legality, one of the resolution’s sponsors believes the court’s decision provides Cambridge with the mandate to issue valid marriage licenses to gay couples.

“If you look at the language of the decision, the court said there was no rational basis to deny same sex marriage licenses,” Murphy said. “Lawyers can obviously disagree, but we think there’s a strong case to be made that we can go ahead and do this now, and it makes sense given what’s at stake for so many individuals in Cambridge.”