UPDATE: The Senate has passed the bill. It now heads to the House, where it has the support of Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi. Governor Deval Patrick has indicated he will sign it.
***Earlier***
News came last week that this was coming, and it looks like the vote may happen soon…
The Boston Globe: “The 1913 statute prevents Massachusetts from sanctioning marriages that are not legal in the state where the couple lives. The law was enacted in part to prevent interracial couples from evading their own state's ban by traveling to Massachusetts to marry. It was a little-used and rarely enforced law until opponents used it to prevent out-of-state gay couples from getting married in Massachusetts after the state legalized same-sex marriage in 2004.”
WCVB reports: “State lawmakers are expected to vote this afternoon on repealing a law that restricts out-of-state gay couples from marrying in Massachusetts.”
Predicted Arline Isaacson, of the Mass. Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus: “We are going to win this easily. It is not going to be a very difficult fight. People have gotten more and more used to same-sex marriage in the state. People who were once afraid of it or opposed to it find it either not something to fear or they just don't care because it has not affected their lives in a negative way at all.”
More news as it comes…
