Mass. senate votes to repeal 1913 law

BOSTON, May 20 (UPI) -- The Massachusetts Senate voted 28-3 to repeal a 1913 law Gov. Mitt Romney is using to prevent non-resident gay couples from marrying in the state.

The overwhelming vote to repeal the law Wednesday -- including five of the Senate's seven Republicans -- came on the heels of Romney's efforts to confiscate marriage-license paperwork from officials who have refused to reject out-of-state applicants, the Boston Globe reported.

Romney is expected to request a court injunction requiring municipal clerks to abide by the 1913 law, which bans the granting of licenses for out-of-state couples whose marriages would not be recognized in other states.

State Sen. Jarrett T. Barrios, the bill's co-sponsor, said, "I believe the message sent by the Senate today is that the people of Massachusetts want the governor to act more like his father, (former Michigan Gov.) George Romney, than like George Wallace," the segregationist former Alabama governor. "Mitt Romney's father was a civil rights leader and a man of great courage. He supported the Civil Rights Act, he brought people together and did not divide them."

State Sen. Dianne Wilkerson called Romney a "political opportunist" for "invoking a statute that has history in the darkest days of this commonwealth and using it to impose discriminatory practice on another group of people."