*Court validates gay marriages*

 From correspondents in New York

May 17, 2007 04:38am
Article from: Reuters

A MASSACHUSETTS court has validated marriages for up to 200 gay and
lesbian couples from New York who wed in Massachusetts between 2004 and
2006, clarifying a previous ruling that failed to acknowledge them.

"Same-sex marriage only became 'prohibited' in New York on July 6,
2006," Suffolk Superior Court Judge Thomas Connolly found in a May 10
ruling issued overnight by the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders,
which fought for the right of out-of-state couples to marry in
Massachusetts.

On that date, New York's highest court denied the right of same-sex
couples to marry in New York, and Judge Connolly found that no explicit
ban existed before then.

The ruling affects between 100 and 200 New York couples, Gay and Lesbian
Advocates and Defenders said.

"The marriages are now legally valid in New York and they should expect
to be treated as married couples," said Carisa Cunningham, a spokeswoman
for GLAD in Boston.

In 2003, Massachusetts' highest court ruled that a ban on gay marriage
was unconstitutional, clearing the way for the nation's first same-sex
marriages in May 2004. More than 8000 gay and lesbian couples have since
married.

But to prevent the liberal New England state from becoming a US
destination for gay couples to wed, former governor Mitt Romney, who is
now seeking the Republican nomination for president, swiftly spearheaded
a ban on same-sex marriage for out-of-state couples.

He invoked a 1913 law, originally designed to uphold other states' bans
on interracial marriage, that bars couples from marrying in
Massachusetts if their marriages would be prohibited in their home states.

Massachusetts's highest court ruled in his favour on March 2006,
validating the 1913 law and barring gay and lesbian couples from states
that maintain an "express prohibition" on same-sex marriages from
marrying in Massachusetts.

Judge Connolly had ruled that New York same-sex couples could not marry
in Massachusetts as a result of New York's July 6, 2006, decision.

But GLAD pushed back and asked about New York couples who had married in
Massachusetts between May 2004 and July 2006.

Judge Connolly's ruling this month validated those marriages, GLAD said.