Romney wants licenses voided
Reilly asked to review marriage applications by out-of-state gays
By JULIE MEHEGAN, Sun Statehouse Bureau

BOSTON Gov. Mitt Romney said yesterday he is challenging the validity of 10 marriage licenses issued this week to gay couples who live outside Massachusetts, but he does not expect the clerks who issued the licenses to be punished.

In his first public comments since gay couples began to marry in Massachusetts on Monday, the Republican governor, who had threatened legal action against clerks who issued licenses to out-of-state couples, said he has referred the 10 applications to Attorney General Thomas Reilly.

The marriages will not be recorded with the state's Registry of Vital Statistics, Romney said, but he insisted his administration is not embarking on a witch hunt to nullify the unions of out-of-state couples.

Romney said he is merely upholding state law, specifically a 1913 statute that prohibits couples from marrying in Massachusetts if their union would not be lawful in their home states.