Massachusetts first US state to allow same sex-marriages

SAME-SEX couples will legally exchange vows today when Massachusetts becomes the first US state to allow gay marriage, an election-year milestone likely to fuel legal and political battles nationwide.

Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples are expected to seek marriage licenses as of Monday from city and town clerks in Massachusetts, followed by the customary ringing of church bells and the cutting of wedding cakes many topped with two brides or two grooms.

"May 17 is a historic day: It's the day that marks a new chapter of equality for gay and lesbian families," said gay rights activist Marty Rouse. "For the first time in US history, we can receive the critical legal rights and protections that come only through marriage."

Thousands of same-sex couples were married at San Francisco City Hall earlier this year but the marriages were not recognised by the state of California. A mayor in New York state is being prosecuted after performing gay marriages in February.

The famously liberal city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, home to Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has ordered its clerk to begin accepting applications at midnight, and the first weddings are expected later that morning.

The issue has catapulted Massachusetts into the national spotlight, especially in an election year when its junior senator, Democrat John Kerry, is expected to face Republican President George W Bush in the race for the White House.

Both candidates oppose gay marriage, with Mr Bush backing a constitutional ban and Mr Kerry favouring limited legal recognition for same-sex couples.

Conservatives have blasted Massachusetts's top court, which ruled that a state ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional.

The final hurdle was cleared Friday when the US Supreme Court failed to block a legal challenge filed by conservative opponents of same-sex weddings.

A federal appeals court has agreed to hear the case next month, but, by then, clerks will have granted hundreds of licenses to homosexual couples.

Some may be given to out-of-state gay couples who come to Massachusetts in defiance of Gov Mitt Romney, who has told them to stay home amid fears his state could become "the Las Vegas of same-sex marriage."