Impact
More than 10,000 same-sex couples married in Massachusetts in the first four years after such marriages became legal on May 17, 2004. Approximately 6,100 marriages took place in the first six months, and they continued at a rate of about 1,000 per year.
Same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts are recognized in the District of Columbia and five states that grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples: Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, and, New York. Some states recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, even though they do not grant such licenses themselves, including Maryland and Rhode Island. Other issues are in litigation and results vary from state to state. For example, after a long court fight a lesbian couple who wed in Massachusetts succeeded in January 2011 in obtaining a divorce in Texas, a state that does not recognize same-sex marriage, but their case did not set a precedent for other same-sex couples in Texas. Similarly situated couples have been denied divorce in Pennsylvania and Nebraska.
On the fifth anniversary of the Goodridge decision, Mary Bonauto, who argued the case for GLAD, said that state agencies were cooperating fully with its requirements, noting that exceptions occurred in programs that received federal funding and were therefore subject to the restrictions of the U.S. Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
Read more about this topic: Goodridge V. Department Of Public Health
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