11/19/2003

Gay couples are entitled to all the same rights and protections of marriage as other couples. With its decision yesterday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has instructed the state's legislators to make it possible for same-sex couples to legally marry within six months.

The decision means that marriage is defined only by love, commitment and a desire to spend a lifetime together - and not as a union between a man and a woman.

It is a historic decision in the best tradition of Massachusetts, a place that knows a thing or two about individual liberties and equality of law.

The decision recognizes that gays and lesbians are members of our community who deserve the same spousal rights and protections as everyone else. Gays and lesbians are an integral part of the community in the Pioneer Valley, and polls show that support for same-sex marriages is increasing throughout all of Massachusetts. Yet Gov. W. Mitt Romney and some legislators still believe marriage should be a union between a man and a woman. Some of that opposition is based on religious beliefs, and while we respect that, marriage is a civil contract between two people. No religion can impose its definition of marriage on a couple.

It's the Legislature's role to make the law - hence lawmakers. And its job now is to create a law that makes it possible for two people of the same sex to marry.

Some suggest a civil union as a compromise. That only creates a separate inferior class of marriage - and it's unacceptable.

Others will pursue an amendment to the state constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Such trivial use of an amendment would insult the constitution and the people who wrote it.

The state's highest court, in its 4-3 ruling, has shown that marriage is about love, not gender.

"Whether and whom to marry, how to express sexual intimacy, and whether and how to establish a family - these are among the most basic of every individual's liberty and due process rights," Chief Justice Margaret Marshall wrote in a 34-page ruling.

Legislators should begin work now and send this message to same-sex couples who have been waiting months for the ruling: Put the wedding invitations in the mail.