Breaking news: MA legislature readying to take up repeal of 1913 law preventing out-of-state gay marriages

The state legislature will likely take up a bill to repeal the 1913 law that prevents non-resident same-sex couples from marrying before the close of the legislative session at the end of this month.

According to MassEquality Campaign Director Marc Solomon, "there is a serious effort on the part of the Senate and then the House to advance a repeal of the 1913 law ... sometime in the next week or so."

Solomon credited state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson will championing the bill, which was filed by former state senator Jarrett Barrios before he left the legislature last year. Wilkerson, said Solomon, "has really championed it with the Senate President to get her to move it. I understand that there is a very good chance that it will move before the session ends."

The 1913 law which prevent out of state couples from marrying in the Bay State if their marriage would be considered void in their state of residence, and with the exceptions of Rhode Island, which recognizes Massachusetts marriages, and now California, where same-sex marriage became legal last month, same-sex couples in other states are prevented from marrying here as their unions are not legal in their home states. The law was unenforced for decades until the implementation of the Goodridge decision in 2004 and then-Gov. Mitt Romney, an opponent of marriage equality, resurrected it to prevent the state from becoming "the Las Vegas of same-sex marriage." A lawsuit filed in 2004 by Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) failed.

Solomon said that the implementation of marriage equality in California, which has no residency requirement for same-sex couples who wish to marry there served as a reminder to legislators "that we have some unfinished business here and that unfinished business is repealing the 1913 law.

Solomon also pointed out that New York Gov. David Patterson is advancing a law that would mandate legal recognition in New York to same-sex couples married elsewhere. He made the case that there's no reason why same-sex couples from New York should have to travel as far as California or Canada to tie the knot. "We think that a nice wedding on the beach at the Cape is as a nice a place to get married - and it's also a lot closer," he said.