Photos: Getty Images
Story by Joseph Alexiou
In Boston, the House of Representatives has given LGBT travelers yet another reason to visit Massachusetts this year state this year: on July 31st, in a vote of 118 to 35, the legislature repealed an antiquated 1913 law that prevented out-of-state residents from marrying if the marriage was not legal in the residents’ home state.
Originally created to prevent interracial marriages from taking place in state, the forgotten law was rehabilitated by the former Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican who ran in the primaries for candidacy but lost earlier in the year. The vote, considered a victory of gay rights, brings Massachusetts’ marriage laws equivalent to California’s.
Our recent Massachusetts posting about Lord Manor, a gay-owned bed and breakfast located in Monson, featured a beautiful location for gay and lesbian couples to get hitched. Jeffery Lord, one of the co-owners is a justice of the peace and looks forward to welcoming happy couples celebrating their nuptuals.
“I am hopeful that Lord Manor B&B will indeed become a gay destination spot to come and tie the knot in a tasteful way,” he says.
Lord should indeed be excited about the future; the Williams Institute recently released a study suggesting a repeal of the 1913 law would boost the New England state’s economy by $111 million dollars over the next three years. You can read about it here.
