Massachusetts

Relationship Recognition Information

Statewide Relationship Recognition
yes Licenses marriages for same-sex couples.
yes Honors marriages of same-sex couples from other jurisdictions.
yes Relationship recognition for same-sex couples: Marriage.

Massachusetts has no explicit prohibition against honoring marriages of same-sex couples from other jurisdictions.

  • 2004 Massachusetts began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples on May 17.
  • 2003 On November 18 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that same-sex couples have the right to marry in Massachusetts.
  • 1992 Governor’s Executive Order allows state workers to register domestic partners for purposes of bereavement leave and visitation rights in state prisons and hospitals.

Employment Information

Statewide Employment Protections
yes Private employment protections based on sexual orientation.
no Private employment protections based on gender identity.
yes Public (state) employment protections based on sexual orientation.
- Public (state) employment protections based on gender identity.

See Massachusetts General Laws Ch. 151B, § 3(6) (1989) and Ch. 151B, § 4 (2005).

Parenting Information

Statewide Parenting Laws
Who May Adopt Any “person of full age”
Second Parent Adoptions Mass. Gen. L. ch. 210, §1
Notes Approved. See Adoption of Tammy, 619 N.E.2d 315 (Mass. 1993)

Cases

Cook v. Rumsfeld
Case challenging the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy

Goodridge v. Department of Public Health
(Amicus) Groundbreaking case seeking the right to marry for same-sex couples in Massachusetts

All Cases »

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