FEWER GAY COUPLES SEEKING MARRIAGE LICENSES: From the Boston Globe

The number of gay and lesbian couples applying for marriage licenses has slowed to a trickle since a rush to the altar in the days after same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts on May 17, according to state records and a Globe survey of large cities and towns.

In the first week after the Supreme Judicial Court decision took effect on May 17, 2,500 gay and lesbian couples applied for licenses; 1,700 have done so in the six months since then, according to unofficial tallies by the Globe and state officials.

In all, the state's Registry of Vital Records has received an estimated 4,266 marriage licenses for gay and lesbian couples, a spokeswoman said yesterday. ...

Some Boston marriages probably involve people coming to the city because it offered an accepting environment. Gates said the relatively high number of gay and lesbian couples getting married probably reflects pent-up demand.

"You have to remember that same-sex couples haven't had the ability to marry, so you would expect a surge that probably would not be sustained over time as it becomes a much more normalized process," Gates said.

In Provincetown and Northampton, same-sex couples made up the majority of people who received marriage licenses in the last six months.

In Provincetown, 912, or 97 percent, of the 937 couples who have applied for licenses since May 17 are same-sex couples. In Northampton, 325, or 66 percent, of the 494 couples who got licenses were gay or lesbian.

In Provincetown, 225 of the same-sex couples applied for licenses during the first week after May 17, and in Northampton 114 did. Other cities and towns also had relatively high percentages of same-sex couples applying: In Somerville 32 percent of the applicants were gay or lesbian couples, and in Springfield the percentage was 12 percent. ...

But the percentage of male and female same-sex couples seeking licenses differed greatly from city to city, according to the Globe survey conducted yesterday. In Boston, 63 percent of the same-sex applicants were men, while in Northampton 88 percent were women.

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