CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — City clerks began handing out marriage-license applications to gay couples just after midnight today, making Massachusetts the first state in the nation to legalize same-sex unions and the United States just one of four countries in the world where homosexuals can legally wed.

The first couple to begin filling out the paperwork was Marcia Hams, 56, and her partner, Susan Shepherd, 52, of Cambridge. They showed up at midnight Saturday — a full 24 hours ahead of time — to stake out the first spot in line where the city clerk was to hand out the nation's first state-sanctioned gay marriage applications.

"I'm shaking so much," Hams said as she filled out the application while sitting at a table across from a city official.

Outside, throughout the day and into the night, the atmosphere was festive — complete with a giant wedding cake — as officials in the liberal bastion of Cambridge seized the earliest possible moment to begin the process of granting same-sex couples the historic right at the center of legal battles nationwide.

The state's highest court had ruled gays and lesbians must be allowed to marry beginning today, and some of the couples in line planned to head to the courts as soon as they opened later in the morning to seek waivers allowing them to wed before the usual three-day waiting period.

The Utah Legislature this year passed SB24, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, in effect banning same-sex unions. Utahns in November will vote on whether to also amend the Utah Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman.

Massachusetts was thrust into the center of a nationwide debate on gay marriage when the state's Supreme Judicial Court issued its narrow 4-3 ruling in November that gays and lesbians had a right under the state constitution to wed.

In the days leading up to today's deadline for same-sex weddings to begin, opponents looked to the federal courts for help in overturning the Supreme Judicial Court's ruling. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene.

The SJC's ruling touched off a frenzy of gay marriages across the country earlier this year, emboldening officials in San Francisco, upstate New York and Portland, Ore., to issue marriage licenses as acts of civil disobedience. Even though courts ordered a halt to the wedding march, opponents pushed for a federal constitutional ban on gay marriage, which President Bush has endorsed.

The SJC's ruling also galvanized opponents of gay marriage in Massachusetts, prompting lawmakers in this heavily Democratic, Roman Catholic state to adopt a state constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage but legalize Vermont-style civil unions. The earliest it could wind up on the ballot is 2006 — possibly casting a shadow on the legality of perhaps thousands of gay marriages that take place in the intervening years.

As of today, Massachusetts joins the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada's three most populous provinces as the only places worldwide where gays can marry, though the rest of Canada is expected to follow soon.

Several couples, anxious to give their unions the ultimate recognition, waited for hours outside Cambridge's City Hall before midnight.

"People do this for Red Sox tickets, concert tickets," said Hams, a health care advocate who has been with Shepherd, a graduate student, for 27 years. "Certainly we can do it for this."

"We came here because I've been waiting seven years, and I don't want to wait another day, another second," said Alex Fennell, 27, a Boston lawyer marrying Sasha Hartman, 29. "For me, it's excitement and gratitude. It's nothing I ever thought we would be able to do."

Across the state on Sunday, gay-rights advocates held "Countdown to Equality" parties to celebrate the impending nuptials and to keep attention focused on the political fights ahead. Several churches held ceremonies honoring gay parishioners and recognizing the fight they've waged for marriage rights.

Robert Compton and David Wilson — one of the seven plaintiff couples in the lawsuit that led to the state court's landmark ruling — attended services at Arlington Street Church in Boston a day before they will exchange vows in the church.

View Comments

Today marks the culmination of a legal battle by the couples that began in April 2001 after they were denied marriage licenses. Clerks in the state's 351 cities and towns have made plans to bring in volunteers and expand their work space in anticipation of a deluge of couples.

Opponents of gay marriage planned protests today and promise to continue to fight the state high court ruling and to pursue state and federal amendments banning gay marriage.

Both sides in the debate say the issue may figure prominently in the November elections across the country.

Candidates for Congress could face pressure to explain their position on a proposed federal constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage.

Join the Conversation
Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.