Blood Tests For Gay Couples Planning To Wed

Blood Tests For Gay Couples Planning To Wed
by Margo Williams
365Gay.com Newscenter
Boston Bureau

Posted: April 21, 2004 5:18 p.m. ET


(Boston, Massachusetts) Same-sex couples have begun filing into doctors' offices for health screenings, a requirement to marry in Massachusetts.

The blood tests for syphilis and HIV among other things cannot be done more than 30 days before a couple fills out a marriage application. Same-sex marriage becomes legal in Massachusetts May 17.

More than 150 people have signed up for a premarital clinic program at the Fenway Community Health in Boston. The clinic is in an area with a large gay population.

But, while gay and lesbian couples prepare to marry, conservatives are mounting several last ditch efforts to stop the weddings.

Gov. Mitt Romney has asked the Legislature for special power to ask the state's highest court put a hold on the ruling that legalized gay marriage.
Additionally, the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts has filed a motion with the court for a stay in the marriage ruling.

The League has petitioned a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court yesterday to delay allowing such marriages for 2 1/2 years.

The Legislature has begun the lengthy process of amending the state constitution. A joint session of the House and Senate recently passed a proposed amendment that would ban gay marriage but permit civil unions. It must be passed a second time in the next session of the legislature and then could go to voters in 2006.

C.J. Doyle, the executive director of the Catholic Action League told the court there would be pandemonium if the weddings go ahead, only to be annulled in two years.

"Legal chaos will be created by the issuance of same-sex `marriage' licenses before the issue goes to the citizens for a vote in 2006," Doyle said in an eight-page petition filed with the court.

The court, he added, "has a duty to avoid this inevitable conflict and confusion by simply staying the entry of its judgment pending the outcome of the amendment process."

Doyle said he is hoping that a single justice will grant a stay.

Mary Bonauto, a lawyer for Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, called the petition as a "desperate move and a publicity stunt."

"This is an end run around the constitutional process; it's an end run around the court decision," she said.

So far, the high court has shown no interest in compromising on its ruling that the state cannot stop same-sex couples from marrying.

Earlier this week, a state lawmaker filed a bill in the State House to fire the judges who ruled in favor of same-sex marriage. (story)

©365Gay.com® 2004