Same Sex Marriage: The fight for Equal Rights Continues

A Historic Moment

On November 18th, 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in a majority opinion that “limiting the protections, benefits, and obligations of civil marriage to opposite-sex couples…violates the basic premises of individual liberty and equality under law protected by the Massachusetts Constitution”(Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health). This makes Massachusetts the first state in the union to give same-sex couples the same rights and privileges that heterosexual couples are granted through civil marriage.

MA Court Clarifies: Civil Marriage is a Civil Right; Civil Unions not Enough
On February 4, 2004, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in an advisory opinion that civil marriage, not civil unions, is the only constitutional form of unions that will ensure same sex couples have equal rights. The ruling deemed that civil unions would be “inferior” and unconstitutional, citing the precedent in this country that “separate is seldom, if ever, equal” (from advisory opinion). The court further explained, “for no rational reason the marriage laws of the Commonwealth discriminate against a defined class; no amount of tinkering with language will eradicate that stain.”

The Constitutional Convention

The Massachusetts Legislature met in a emotional joint session for two days this February to decide if they should change the state’s constitution to explicitly limit marriage to heterosexual couples. Boston NOW is firmly against writing any form of discrimination into the state constitution. We mobilized by helping Mass. NOW phone members around the state, asking them to call their representatives and vote against any anti-gay amendment to the constitution. In voting on three different amendments that would have restricted marriage to heterosexual couples and written discrimination into the constitution, the opponents to the anti-gay amendments squeaked out a victory every time. Our hard work paid off—for now. The Legislature will continue the constitutional convention on March 11, 2004, and we need to work just as hard to keep pressure on all of our legislative representatives to vote against any anti-gay amendments.

May 17th: the Day the Goodridge Decision Goes Into Effect

Baring any legal wrangling by Speaker Finneran or Governor Romney to prevent it, the Goodridge decision (which struck down barriers for same sex couples to get married) is set to go into effect this May, on the 17th. At that point, same sex couples could wed in the state of Massachusetts. This is something NOW activists all over the city and state have been working toward for many years and we cannot wait for it to take effect! We hope to attend many beautiful weddings for our friends and family members who have been waiting for years to have their partnerships affirmed and treated as equal by the law.

What Boston NOW’s Been Doing & How You Can Help

Boston NOW, in partnership with MassEquality.org and Mass. NOW, has been phoning our friends and family, along with NOW members throughout the state, and asking them to contact their legislators and urge them to vote against any anti-gay amendment to the state constitution. Now that the votes from the first constitutional convention are in, we are asking all our members to contact your legislators again, to thank them if they voted against the amendments, or to urge them to vote against future amendments if they did not in the first convention.

Boston Pride Celebration!

Finally, you can join Boston NOW for Boston PRIDE! Each year we march in the parade. This is one of the most fun events we do as a chapter every year. The crowd always loves us and when we walk through, the bystanders go wild! It is a wonderful time to celebrate all the hard work we do during the rest of the year and I encourage you all to join us for marching.

If you would like to be involved with the Boston NOW Pride planning committee, and help decide what we will focus on at Pride this year, please call the office or send an email to info@bostonnow.org.
Remember, you don’t have to be gay to march in Pride – just happy!
Please join us!