Gay rights advocates Friday denounced Attorney General Tom Reilly’s reaction to the state high court’s gay marriage decision, arguing that it was shameful for the state’s chief law enforcement officer to promote a “separate-but-equal” system.
“The notion that you can separate somehow these benefits, protections and obligations of marriage from the status of marriage itself is just unbelievable, I think,” said Gary Buseck, executive director of Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, which represented the plaintiffs in the landmark case. “Frankly, I think he reads it in a way that is completely preposterous.”
Reilly, who held his first press conference since the Supreme Judicial Court issued its decision, denied that he was calling for a separate-but-equal statute for gay couples, but said he thought the ruling left the Legislature room to approve something other than gay marriage as long as it provided equal benefits and protections. [Boston Globe]