Boston, Mass., Feb 4, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared yesterday that the creation of a new legal category for the union of same-sex couples – civil unions – would not comply with the state’s constitution regarding marriage. Only marriage, said the court, would comply with the state’s constitution regarding a same-sex couple’s right to marry.
"The dissimilitude between the terms ‘civil marriage’ and ‘civil union’ is not innocuous; it is a considered choice of language that reflects a demonstrable assigning of same-sex, largely homosexual, couples to second-class status," said Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall of the state's Supreme Judicial Court.
This decision makes Massachusetts the first U.S. state to uphold same-sex marriages, and it allows same-sex marriages to begin taking place in mid-May.
The court's ruling was issued in response to a state Senate question about whether civil unions would meet the requirements of a 4-to-3 ruling by the court last November that same-sex couples had the right to marry.