Massachusetts Same-Sex Marriage Anniversary Statistics Roundup

I was at a coffeeshop in Plymouth, Massachusetts ("America's Hometown") this morning reading the paper and there was an article about the 1 yr anniversary of gay marriage becoming legal in here on May 17.

This was the first time I have seen stats on post-legalization marriages in the state. The numbers appear to be quite positive!

Just shy of 6000 marriage licenses were issued to same-sex couples in Massachusetts between May 17, 2004 and December 31, 2004. This was a remarkable 18 percent of the total!

In Plymouth, 31 same-sex licenses were issued - 11 percent.

Cambridge, Massachusetts issued 553 licenses to same-sex couples - 40 percent.

And Provincetown, one of the world's great GLBT hotspots, issued 841 same-sex licenses and only 24 male-female licenses giving them the highest percentage of same-sex marriages for the period - more than 97%! Another Provicetown stat in the article was the ratio of male-gay to lesbian couples getting married. 483 of the same-sex licenses issued in P-town went to lesbian couples - 57%.

One of the town clerks interviewed in the newspaper story pointed out that the numbers and ratios for 2004 won't necessarily be repeated this year. There has been a drop in licenses issued so far in 2005 - partly due to pent-up demand being met last year plus the fact that "wedding season" here doesn't really begin in earnest until June.

That 6000 gay loving couples were able to legally tie the knot last year in the eyes of the state in Massachusetts without the sky falling is a civil rights victory for everyone that should serve as an example to people everywhere how petty, mean-spirited and backwards political opposition to same-sex marriage really is. This is part of what freedom looks like, world! Everybody's invited!

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