GAYS ELSEWHERE EYE MARRIAGE MASSACHUSETTS STYLE: From the New York Times

Trey Watts and Darin Moore have never been to Massachusetts. They live in Oklahoma City, where Mr. Watts sells used cars and Mr. Moore is a beauty consultant at a salon.

But they plan to marry in Massachusetts this month, one of a first wave of gay couples expecting to do so when same-sex marriages become legal in the state next week.

The Oklahomans' plans fly in the face of an edict by Massachusetts' governor, Mitt Romney, who says out-of-state same-sex couples cannot wed here. But Mr. Watts and Mr. Moore are coming anyway, heading to Provincetown, on Cape Cod, one of three Massachusetts communities that have said they will defy the governor and marry out-of-state couples. ...

With Massachusetts about to become, on Monday, the first state to legalize same-sex marriages, the treatment of out-of-state couples has become one of the most controversial aspects of this highly controversial issue. And against that shifting and tension-fraught background, thousands of out-of-state couples eager to marry here are trying to decide what to do.

Governor Romney has threatened legal action against clerks who issue marriage licenses to out-of-state couples with no intention of moving to Massachusetts; such action could lead to fines of up to $500 or a prison sentence of up to a year. He has also said the state will "refuse to recognize those marriages and inform the parties that the marriage is null and void."

Gay-marriage advocates say they will go to court to challenge the governor's directive, which is based on his interpretation of a 1913 law that says the state will not marry couples if they do not intend to move here and if their marriage would be "void" in their home state. The governor, saying that "Massachusetts should not become the Las Vegas of same-sex marriage," has interpreted the law to mean that since no other state performs gay marriages, only Massachusetts same-sex couples are eligible to marry here.

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