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Same-Sex Marriage: Massachusetts Sets the Precedent

By Shari Levitan and Ellen Schiffer Berkowitz
March 18, 2004

[Editor's Note: The following information was up-to-date as of press-time. Rulings on same-sex marriage are being issued daily. For the very latest news on same-sex marriages in Massachusetts and the rest of the country, as it happens, go to www.ljnonline.com and access the interactive map.]

One month after the highest court in Massachusetts, the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC), issued its decision on the unconstitutionality of the denial of same-sex marriage in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the Massachusetts Senate prepared draft legislation authorizing civil unions (Senate No. 2175). The legislation intended to grant same-sex couples “all the benefits, protections, rights and responsibilities afforded by the marriage laws” while still “preserving the traditional, historic nature and meaning of the institution of civil marriage.” The civil union legislation created a separate, yet arguably equal, set of benefits and privileges for same-sex couples. The legislation, however, also denied same-sex couples the right to civil marriage and thereby lacked the intangible benefits of marriage that the Goodridge decision noted are “important components of marriage as a 'civil right.'” The Massachusetts Senate asked the SJC to review the civil union legislation and offer an advisory opinion on its constitutionality.

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