Like several other members of the Tufts community, English professor Jonathan Strong made the trip to his town hall last week to be among the first gay people in the country to get married.
Last November, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruled that banning gay marriage was against the state constitution. The state began granting same-sex marriage licenses last Monday.
The state legislature has approved a constitutional amendment curtailing gay marriages to civil unions, but the final decision will not go before state voters until Nov. 2006 at the earliest. Vermont began allowing civil unions for same-sex couples in 1999.
Strong and his partner of 14 years, Scott Elledge, filled out the necessary paperwork on Monday in their hometown of Rockport, Mass., and were married by the town clerk Thursday, following a three-day waiting period.
The waiting period is required for both heterosexual and homosexual couples, but a judege can waive the requirement for a fee.
"It gives an emotional feeling of acceptance and protection," Strong said of his marriage. "There's a sense of being recognized by your community as a stable element."
Last Monday, May 17, was the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the landmark civil rights case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that separate schools based on race were unequal.
"History has shown us that separate but equal situations don't work," said Dona Yarbrough, the director of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Center.
Speaking of the May 17 parallel, Yarbrough said, "Obviously that was done on purpose."
Director of Drug and Alcohol Education Margot Abels married her partner in Lynn, Mass.
Abels described gay marriage as "wonderful progress in equality and rights."
She also said that she and her partner hope to start a family. "For the sake of those future children, it would be good if [the parents] were legally connected to each other," Abels said.
On Saturday, May 8, Health Services conducted free blood tests for same-sex couples that are part of the Tufts community. Abels said that eight or nine couples that planned to marry, some from the Boston campus, attended the screening.
The beginning of gay marriage in the state presents new challenges for insurance companies and human resources departments. For the past five years, Tufts has offered same-sex partner benefits, but unlike marriage benefits, same-sex benefits are taxable at the state and federal levels.
"Many people don't take advantage of that because it can be more expensive," Yarbrough said.
Benefits include health insurance and tuition discounts.
According to Vice President of Human Resources Kathe Cronin, same-sex couples that decide to marry will receive the same benefits as heterosexual couples. Tufts will provide "as much benefits as we can under the law," she said.
Since gay marriage is not allowed nationally, however, health care premiums and other benefits will still be subject to federal and possibly state taxes.
"The state has not issued guidelines," she said. "As soon as we have word on how to handle that, then we'll be able to work with them."
In what Cronin described as "a wait-and-see approach," the University has not yet decided whether to require same-sex couples to marry to continue receiving same-sex partner benefits.
Strong previously received same-sex partner benefits. He said he will notify Human Resources of his marriage and will follow the University's advice on how to manage his benefits.
Robyn Ochs, who teaches a class at the Experimental College (ExCollege), married her partner of eight years, Peg Preble. The couple has been registered as domestic partners in Cambridge since 1999, which allowed them hospital visitation rights in the city.
The couple chose to get married in nearby Brookline. "We were impressed by their welcoming stance and proactive support of same-sex marriages," Ochs said. "I'm feeling so excited and so happy," she said as she waited in line to receive her marriage certificate.
Ochs and Preble paid a $195 fee to have the waiting period waived.
As an ExCollege professor, Ochs does not receive benefits from Tufts. She is a part-time employee of Harvard University, as a Technology and Communications Specialist, and she had received same-sex partner benefits since 1999.
Ochs said she will no longer be taxed on the state level for her benefits from Harvard.
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has said the SJC decision only allows same-sex marriages for people who live in Massachusetts or intend to do so after their marriage. Three cities, however, including Somerville, have said they will grant licenses to out-of-state couples.
Somerville Communications Director Mark Horan said all couples take an oath when they are issued a marriage license "that they know of no legal impediment to their marriage."
Horan said the city would not be checking to make sure gay marriage is not banned in the couple's home state. "It's their responsibility to know what the laws are in their state," he said.
For a same-sex couple to get married in Cambridge, however, they would have to live in Massachusetts or intend to after the marriage, Cambridge City Clerk Margaret Drury said.
Somerville began offering same-sex marriage licenses on Monday after a welcome ceremony at 8:00 a.m.
Cambridge held a reception with music and food at 10:30 p.m. on May 16 and allowed couples to take tickets. Ticket numbers were called and licenses were issued beginning at 12:01 a.m. on May 17.
No gay marriages are expected to take place on campus over the summer. "There has been no one who has approached us," University Chaplain Rev. David O'Leary said. No marriages at all are scheduled at Hillel due to construction over the summer.
Although Goddard Chapel lies in Medford, where out-of-state same-sex couples would not be allowed to marry, the marriage license would not have to come from the city of Medford.
"Most ministers don't ask where a license comes from," O'Leary said. "As long as it comes from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, it counts."
