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Gay Nonresidents Can Wed In Massachusetts

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The Associated Press

Published: August 1, 2008

BOSTON - Joy Spring and Carla Barbano spent the day before their wedding the way many brides do: relaxing and primping at a spa.

But unlike most, their wedding day had to wait until Gov. Deval Patrick signed a bill Thursday that repealed a 1913 law that had blocked gay couples from outside Massachusetts from marrying here.

"We're being recognized as a married couple," said Spring of Middletown, N.Y., who planned to wed Barbano, her partner of seven years, at a ceremony today in Provincetown.

Supporters of the repeal of the law, which banned couples from marrying in Massachusetts unless their unions would be legal in their home states, say lifting the ban was not only fair but will have economic benefits.

A state study estimates that more than 30,000 out-of-state gay couples - most of them from New York - will wed in Massachusetts during the next three years.

That would boost the state's economy by $111 million and create 330 jobs, the study estimated.

Opponents say Massachusetts now could become the "Las Vegas of gay marriage," and they criticized lawmakers for infringing on other states' rights to define marriage.

Patrick, the state's first black governor, said he was proud to sign the bill repealing the law, which some say had its roots in trying to block interracial marriages.

In 2003, Massachusetts became the first state to rule that gay couples had a right to marry.

California recently legalized gay marriage, without a residency requirement.

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