May 14, 2004  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.  | COMMENTS     

A legal opinion by the city’s corporation counsel, which D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams says he is not ready to release, states that District law requires the city to recognize legally sanctioned same-sex marriages issued by Massachusetts and other states, according to a District government source.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said news of the opinion prepared by Corporation Counsel Robert Spagnoletti has been circulating among the mayor’s top aides and other District government officials. Spagnoletti, who is gay, serves as the city’s top lawyer.

Washington Post columnist Marc Fischer reported on May 11 that a “government official” who has reviewed the contents of Spagnoletti’s opinion disclosed to the Post that the opinion holds that the city “must” recognize same-sex marriages performed by other states.

Reports of the contents of Spagnoletti’s opinion came as Williams was deliberating how to respond to a letter from Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, which asks the mayor whether he would grant Massachusetts permission to marry same-sex couples who live in D.C.

Pressure builds on mayor
The Romney letter, which arrived last week, added to the pressure on the mayor to take a stand on whether to recognize gay marriages from Massachusetts at a time when some gay activists have urged him to postpone any action on gay marriage until after the November election.

The Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance and the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, two prominent D.C. gay groups, have warned elected officials that Congress would likely respond to any gay marriage initiatives in the city by passing a law to ban recognition of such marriages.

Romney’s letter also comes at a time when a contingent of same-sex couples were scheduled to show up at the marriage license bureau at the D.C. Superior Court building on Monday, May 17, to apply for marriage licenses.

The couples plan to hold a news conference outside the courthouse at 4:30 p.m., where they were expected to announce whether they would file suit to challenge a decision to deny their request for marriage licenses.

Among the activists expected to speak at the news conference are Rev. Candace Shultis, pastor of D.C. Metropolitan Community Church; Mandy Carter, an official with the National Black Justice Coalition; and Mara Keisling, an official with the National Coalition for Transgender Rights.

Romney said he sent letters to the governors of 49 states, as well as the D.C. mayor, to inform them that a 1913 Massachusetts law makes it illegal for his state to marry out-of-state residents whose marriages would not be legal in their home states. Romney has said he will enforce that law unless governors or attorneys general — or their D.C. equivalent — declare that they would permit Massachusetts to marry same-sex couples from their home states or D.C.

“The letter is under review,” said Tony Bullock, Williams’ press secretary.

Bullock said the city received Romney’s letter late last week and the mayor’s office sent it to Spagnoletti for review.

According to Bullock, Romney states in his letter that he assumes that same-sex marriages are not recognized in D.C. and other states and that Williams most likely would not want Massachusetts to marry same-sex couples from D.C.

“Unless we receive an authoritative statement to the contrary from either you or your representative, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will not issue a marriage license to residents of your state,” Bullock quoted Romney’s letter as saying.

The 1913 Massachusetts law, known as a reverse evasion statute and intended at the time largely to block interracial marriages performed elsewhere, states, “No marriage shall be contracted in this commonwealth by a party residing and intending to continue to reside in another jurisdiction if such marriage would be void if contracted in such other jurisdiction, and every marriage contracted in this commonwealth in violation hereof shall be null and void.”

D.C. residents awaiting guidance
D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who is gay, said he is urging Williams to give Romney the go-ahead to marry same-sex couples from D.C. if Spagnoletti’s opinion concludes that the city must recognize legally issued marriages from other states.

“I haven’t seen Mr. Spagnoletti’s opinion,” Graham said. “But the information we’re hearing is that the opinion is in the affirmative, that the law of the District of Columbia requires us to give full faith and credit to marriages from other states.”

Graham said it is important for the mayor to act quickly because D.C. residents are looking to the city for guidance on whether to go to Massachusetts to marry. Graham noted that even if Massachusetts refuses to marry D.C. residents, same-sex couples who ...