Fridae

The four-to-three majority ruling of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court handed down in Boston on Tuesday stops short of granting recognition to same-sex marriage, but it has helped redefine what marriage means under US law.

?Barring an individual from the protections, benefits and obligations of civil marriage solely because that person would marry a person of the same sex violates the Massachusetts Constitution,? the court was quoted as saying by wire service AFP.

Significantly, it rejected the State?s claim that the primary purpose of marriage was procreation and ruled that it is the ?exclusive and permanent commitment of the marriage partners to one another, not the begetting of children, that is the sine qua non of marriage.?

President George Bush, on an official visit to Britain, issued a statement condemning the Court?s decision and vowing to take all steps necessary to block the extension of marriage beyond heterosexuals.

?Marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman,? Bush said in the statement carried by AFP. ?Today?s decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court violates this important principle. I will work with congressional leaders and others to do what is necessary to defend the sanctity of marriage.?

Bush was speaking from an apparent position of growing strength in the United States, with more than half of Americans opposed to recognition of same-sex marriage. A poll conducted mid-October and released on Tuesday by the Pew Centre for Research found 59 per cent of respondents oppose gay marriage, up from 53 per cent in July.

?Despite the overall rise in tolerance towards gays since the mid-1980s, many Americans remain highly critical of homosexuals, and religious belief is a major factor in these attitudes,? the researchers were quoted as saying. Some 80 per cent of highly religious Americans reject the idea of gay marriage, up from 71 per cent in July.

The Massachusetts ruling does not grant recognition to same-sex couples in that State. The court stayed its judgement for 180 days to allow the State legislature to ?take such steps as it may deem appropriate.?

---

Governor Mitt Romney told reporters the legislature will comply with the court ruling ?even if we don?t agree with it,? but ambiguously added he would ask lawmakers to look at amending the constitution in a way ?that will be consistent with what I think are the feelings of the Commonwealth.?

The Court was ruling on a lawsuit filed in 2001 by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation on behalf of seven same-sex couples who were denied marriage licenses by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

The group?s lawyer, Mary Bunauto, told reporters: ?The decision essentially says that, as to both liberty and equality, there is fact no rational reason whatsoever for discrimination against gay and lesbian families.?

Julie Goodridge, who with her partner Hillary was party to the law suit, said she hoped the ruling would lead to legal recognition of their partnership.

?We are a couple that is worthy of the protections of marriage and that after 16-and-a-half years, Hillary and I are finally going to be able to get married and protect our family,? she told reporters after the court?s decision.

Human Rights Campaign executive director Elizabeth Birch told CNN that the ruling was welcome, but was disappointing in that it did not order that same sex marriages be recognised.

?What we would have liked is for the Massachusetts Supreme Court to go all the way and construe not only the right to marry but to order that,? Birch said. ?We need to wait and see? if the Massachusetts legislature will have the ultimate courage that the court did not have.?

Birch added: ?If not for courts, African-Americans would not have had the right to vote, women would not have the right to vote. The purpose of a constitution is to protect a minority group from the wrath of the majority.?

Connie Mackey, of the conservative Family Research Council, said she expected the legislature to amend the constitution to specifically prohibit same sex marriage.

?For us, this is a clear case of the court overruling the majority will of the people,? Mackey said on CNN.

Another FRC representative, Peter Sprigg, told the BBC: ?The definition of marriage is under threat. Marriage as an institution is under siege in our country.

---

?We are certainly going to demand that every public official, every candidate for public office at every level of government take a stand on the issue of marriage,? Sprigg said.

Same-sex couples can register their partnerships in Hawaii, California and Vermont, though Hawaii does not confer any legal entitlements, the right to restrict the eligibility of couples seeking to marry being upheld on appeal in 1999, and California does not protect property rights or grant tax benefits. Vermont is the closest to granting the same rights to same-sex couples as the heterosexuals, though the union is not recognised at a national level. Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean is a Democrat frontrunner in next year?s presidential elections.

The 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act says no State is required to recognise the law of another State in respect to same-sex marriage and defines marriage as being between one man and one woman for federal purposes.

The court in the state of New Jersey is still to rule on a case brought by Lambda in June last year and similar to that in Massachusetts.

?Beyond legal rights and responsibilities, marriage is an enormous part of day-to-day life and is the most common way that couples prove their enduring commitment to each other,? the legal rights group has argued.

Canada has announced it will grant national recognition of same-sex couples on the same basis a marriage, a decision that has put pressure on US legislators to respond.

The Bush administration has already indicated its willingness to consider amending the US Constitution to specifically recognise marriage as solely an institution between one man and one woman.

The British Government next week is expected to unveil legislation for civil partnership registration that extends to same-sex couples virtually all the benefits and obligations of marriage, bringing England and Wales ? Scotland enacts its own domestic laws - into line with many states in the European Union.

The government in Taiwan is next month to put to the Legislative Yuan a sweeping human rights bill that will include recognition of the full and equal right of homosexuals to marry.

In Hong Kong, a campaign to secure recognition of same-sex partnerships is underway.