First gays marry; many seek licenses

By Yvonne Abraham and Michael Paulson
GLOBE STAFF

More than 1,000 gay and lesbian couples streamed into city and town halls across the state yesterday seeking licenses to marry, as Massachusetts marked the first day of legalized same-sex matrimony.

From the tiny town of Rowley, where a town clerk opened her doors four hours early so that a selectman could marry his partner, to Boston, where 99 gay couples were greeted by the mayor and treated to wedding cake at City Hall Plaza, the day went smoothly, with few disruptions or protests.

Provincetown received 154 marriage applications, while Northampton accepted 113. Brookline took in 77, Worcester 72, and Newton 38. Cambridge received 41 applications during daylight hours yesterday, in addition to the 227 accepted during its special first-in-the-state session that began shortly after midnight.

At least 77 same-sex couples were married in the Commonwealth yesterday, according to a Globe survery of several communities.

Scores of couples from outside Massachusetts also flocked to clerks’ offices, especially in cities and towns that had announced their willingness to issue them licenses in defiance of Governor Mitt Romney’s directive that a 1913 law prohibits it. The status of those out-of-state residents’ marriages was in question yesterday.