Court Hears Gay Marriage ChallengeBOSTON (Reuters) - A lesbian couple from Rhode Island argued in court on Monday for the right to marry in Massachusetts, the only U.S. state where gay marriage is legal, in a potentially precedent-setting case.
Lawyers for Mary Norton and Wendy Becker told a Suffolk County Superior Court judge that a ban on non-resident gay couples from marrying in Massachusetts should not apply to them because Rhode Island does not expressly ban same-sex marriage.
"If we're successful on the present facts in Rhode Island, it's possible that other states that don't have a discriminatory marriage law against same sex couples might also be able to prove that they are entitled to marry in Massachusetts," Michele Granda, a lawyer at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders representing the couple, told Reuters after the hearing.
Along with Rhode Island, such states are New York, New Jersey and New Mexico. Washington D.C. also has similar laws.
The latest case comes less than three weeks after the U.S. Senate voted down a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, and three months after Massachusetts' top court ruled that gay couples from U.S. states that ban same-sex marriages cannot legally be wed in Massachusetts.
That ruling by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts upheld a 1913 law barring out-of-state couples from marrying in Massachusetts if their own states fail to recognize the union
But the court, in its March decision, said it would leave to a lower-court judge to decide if gay and lesbians from states that do not expressly ban gay marriage can marry in Massachusetts.
A decision in the latest case is expected in two to six weeks.
Mary Norton said she has waited 18 years to marry Wendy Becker and said they both would move their fight to Rhode Island's courts if they lose in Massachusetts.
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