Boston adopts stricter stand on gay outsiders

[Freddie Stubbs]

By Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff | May 13, 2004

In a move that could thwart out-of-state gay couples who plan to get marriage licenses in Boston City Hall next week, city officials announced yesterday that they will not accept marriage applications from gay couples who live outside Massachusetts or don’t intend to move to the state. But the city will accept a couple’s word, and not require proof of residency, officials said.

The decision from Merita Hopkins, Boston’s corporation counsel, marks a shift in tone for Boston, where Mayor Thomas M. Menino has voiced strong support for gay marriage, and plans to be on hand in City Hall on Monday as the first licenses are handed out.

Earlier this month, Menino strongly signaled that he was willing to allow out-of-state applications, saying he might instruct Boston clerks not to ask for proof of residency, in defiance of Governor Mitt Romney’s directive at the time. He said he would move ahead if city lawyers could justify the city’s position.

But yesterday, Boston’s chief lawyer issued a one-sentence statement through a spokesman. The city will accept marriage applications “from everyone except partners who do not reside in Massachusetts, and neither one of which intends to reside in Massachusetts,” Hopkins said in the statement.

more: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/05/13/boston_adopts_stricter_stand_on_gay_outsiders/

[xchrom]

1. just how many right wig christians are having

blood pressure problems over this?
maybe this is nature's way of doing a little selective editing?

[Zolok]

2. Governor Romney is using passive aggressive

bureaucratic pettifogging to interfere as much as possible with any gay marriages come monday.
If this sort of mismanagement going on at the Registry of Motor Vehicles the Governor would be in a jihadist sort of a fury.
:)
For more on this topic check out:
www.chimesatmidnight.blogspot.com