Hundreds of gay couples yesterday began untying the final strands of red tape separating them from something they never thought possible ? the right to legally marry in the United States.

After months of anticipation, debate and protest, Massachusetts yesterday became the first and only US state to allow same-sex marriage, an election-year milestone likely to fuel legal and political battles nationwide. At the stroke of midnight, cheers erupted among hundreds of gay and lesbian couples waiting to apply first thing in the morning for marriage licenses at City Hall in the famously liberal community of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The first legal gay weddings took place after courthouses opened across the state. Several of those waiting to fill out forms expressed a mix of giddiness and anxiety as they contemplated the new rights and responsibilities they will face as married couples. ?I?ve always thought it was not just about the rights but the rightness. It legitimizes who I am,? said Tod Davis of Somerville, Massachusetts, who intends to marry his partner of nine years, Joseph Winkley. ?Until I get married, I?m just a second-class citizen.?

Passing cars honked their horns and a throng of onlookers choked the sidewalks outside the 19th-century building. Across the street, about a half-dozen anti-gay demonstrators held signs like ?God Hates Fags.? ?If they?re going to allow this, then why not incest? Why not have people marry animals? Why not polygamy?? asked protester Ben Phelps of Topeka, Kansas. Thousands of same-sex couples were married at San Francisco City Hall earlier this year, but the marriages were not recognized by the state of California. A mayor in New York state is being prosecuted after performing gay marriages in February.

<B>Massachusetts in spotlight </B>

The issue has catapulted Massachusetts into the national spotlight in an election year with its junior senator, Democrat John Kerry challenging Republican President George W. Bush for the White House.

Both oppose gay marriage. Bush supports a constitutional ban and Kerry favors limited legal recognition for same-sex couples. Conservatives have assailed Massachusetts? top court, which ruled last year that a state ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional and allowed same-sex couples to wed legally. The final hurdle was cleared when the US Supreme Court failed to block a last-minute legal challenge filed by conservative opponents of same-sex weddings. A federal appeals court has agreed to hear the case next month, but by that time clerks will probably have granted hundreds of marriage licenses to homosexual couples.

Some may be given to out-of-state gay couples who come to Massachusetts in defiance of Republican Governor, Mitt Romney, who has told them to stay home amid fears his state could become ?the Las Vegas of same-sex marriage.? Citing a 1913 state law that prevents Massachusetts from marrying any couple if the marriage would be ?void? in their home states, Romney?s administration has warned clerks they can issue licenses to out-of-state couples only if they plan on settling in Massachusetts.

Several clerks, noting the statute has not been strictly applied to heterosexual couples, plan on issuing licenses to all gay couples who request them. Gay rights advocates plan to challenge the law, and at least two district attorneys will not prosecute clerks who break the statute, The Boston Sunday Globe reported.

It is expected some couples will take their marriage licenses back to states where they may not be not recognized, setting up legal test cases that courts around America will have to resolve.

Greg Frost