Marathon of same-sex weddings after legal go-ahead

Dozens of gay couples rushed to tie the knot at chapels, parks and beaches across Massachusetts.

The end of a three-day waiting period under state matrimonial law led to the marathon of same-sex weddings yesterday.

The Reverend Kim Crawford Harvie had barely retreated down the aisle with her wife of five minutes when she donned her white robes and got back to work at Arlington Street Church, marrying gay couples in assembly-line fashion.

“OK, I’m ready for my next couple!” said Ms Harvie, 46, who married her partner of seven years, Kem Morehead, at the Unitarian Universalist Church. The church in Boston’s Back Bay planned to marry nearly 50 couples yesterday.

Massachusetts law requires a three-day waiting period between applying for a marriage licence and getting married.

However, dozens of couples obtained a court waiver of the waiting period and married promptly on Monday after the state became the first in the US to allow same-sex couples to wed.

The new round of nuptials came as Governor Mitt Romney took the first steps towards preventing town clerks from issuing licences to out-of-state gay couples.

The Republican governor insists this is prohibited by state law and Attorney General Tom Reilly said the governor’s office had referred a few cases to him. However, he would not say whether he planned to prosecute the couples or the clerks.

The legal manoeuvrings did not stop gay couples from out of state from saying “I do” yesterday.

Provincetown, a gay tourist spot on Cape Cod, is one of four municipalities that have openly defied the governor by issuing licences to out-of-state couples. Weddings of couples from as far away as Florida have been held there.

In Northampton, Joan and Kim Williams became “legally recognised life partners” near a bubbling fountain in Look Park.

Dressed in blue suits, the couple, who have been together for 13 years, held hands and exchanged vows before their four-year-old daughter, one-year-old son and Kim’s parents.

“In my lifetime, I never envisioned this as a possibility,” said Ms Williams, 48.

“We’ve been really overwhelmed by this.”

It was a moment that her father, Jack Arbuckle, also once never imagined.

“Thirteen years ago, I was adamantly opposed to this,” he said.

“But, as I’ve grown older and wiser, I’ve also grown more accepting.”

At the Arlington Street Church, Rabbi Howard Berman presided over the wedding of David Wakely, 59, and Lewis Stein, 57.

“Marriage is a vital social institution,” Rabbi Berman said, reading from the landmark Supreme Judicial Court decision that legalised gay marriage in Massachusetts.

“The exclusive commitment of two individuals to each other nurtures love and mutual support. It brings stability to our society.”