An Act To Allow Marriage Licenses for Same-sex Couples and Protect Religious Freedom
Maine Legislature, Session 125, LD 1860
Amends: 19-A MRSA §650-A, 19-A MRSA §650-B, 19-A MRSA §651, 19-A MRSA §655, 19-A MRSA §701

Legislative Document 
No. 1860 
I.B. 3 
House of Representatives, March 12, 2012 
An Act To Allow Marriage Licenses for Same-sex Couples and 
Protect Religious Freedom 
Transmitted to the Clerk of the 125th Maine Legislature by the Secretary of State on March 
8, 2012 and ordered printed. 
HEATHER J.R. PRIEST 
Clerk 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1.  19-A MRSA §650-A is enacted to read: 
§650-A.  Codification of marriage 
Marriage is the legally recognized union of 2 people. Gender-specific terms relating 
to the marital relationship or familial relationships must be construed to be gender-neutral 
for all purposes throughout the law, whether in the context of statute, administrative or 
court rule, policy, common law or any other source of civil law. 
Sec. 2.  19-A MRSA §650-B is enacted to read: 
§650-B.  Recognition of marriage licensed and certified in another jurisdiction 
A marriage of a same-sex couple that is validly licensed and certified in another 
jurisdiction is recognized for all purposes under the laws of this State. 
Sec. 3.  19-A MRSA §651, sub-§2, as amended by PL 1997, c. 537, §12 and 
affected by §62, is further amended to read: 
2.  Application.  The parties wishing to record notice of their intentions of marriage 
shall submit an application for recording notice of their intentions of marriage.  The 
application may be issued to any 2 persons otherwise qualified under this chapter 
regardless of the sex of each person. The application must include a signed certification 
that the information recorded on the application is correct and that the applicant is free to 
marry according to the laws of this State.  The applicant's signature must be 
acknowledged before an official authorized to take oaths.  Applications recording notice 
of intentions to marry must be open for public inspection in the office of the clerk.  When 
the application is submitted, the applicant shall provide the clerk with the social security 
numbers of the parties.  The application must include a statement that the social security 
numbers of the parties have been provided to the clerk.  The clerk shall record the social 
security numbers provided by each applicant.  The record of the social security numbers 
is confidential and is not open for public inspection. 
Sec. 4.  19-A MRSA §655, sub-§3 is enacted to read: 
3.  Religious exemption.  This chapter does not require any member of the clergy to 
perform or any church, religious denomination or other religious institution to host any 
marriage in violation of the religious beliefs of that member of the clergy, church, 
religious denomination or other religious institution. The refusal to perform or host a 
marriage under this subsection cannot be the basis for a lawsuit or liability and does not 
affect the tax-exempt status of the church, religious denomination or other religious 
institution. 
Sec. 5.  19-A MRSA §701, as amended by PL 2007, c. 695, Pt. C, §4, is further 
amended to read: 
§701.  Prohibited marriages; exceptions 
1.  Marriage out of State to evade law.  When residents of this State, with intent to 
evade this section and to return and reside here, go into another state or country to have 
their marriage solemnized there and afterwards return and reside here, that marriage is 
void in this State. 
1-A.  Certain marriages performed in another state not recognized in this State.  
Any marriage performed in another state that would violate any provisions of subsections 
to 5 4 if performed in this State is not recognized in this State and is considered void if 
the parties take up residence in this State. 
2.  Prohibitions based on degrees of consanguinity; exceptions.  This subsection 
governs marriage between relatives. 
A.    A man may not marry his mother, grandmother, daughter, granddaughter, sister, 
brother's daughter, sister's daughter, father's sister, mother's sister, the daughter of his 
father's brother or sister or the daughter of his mother's brother or sister.  A woman 
may not marry her father, grandfather, son, grandson, brother, brother's son, sister's 
son, father's brother, mother's brother, the son of her father's brother or sister or the 
son of her mother's brother or sister. A person may not marry that person's parent, 
grandparent, child, grandchild, sibling, nephew, niece, aunt or uncle. 
B.    Notwithstanding paragraph A, a man may marry the daughter of his father's 
brother or sister or the daughter of his mother's brother or sister, and a woman may 
marry the son of her father's brother or sister or the son of her mother's brother or 
sister as long as, pursuant to sections 651 and 652, the man or woman provides the 
physician's certificate of genetic counseling. 
3.  Persons under disability.  A person who is impaired by reason of mental illness 
or mental retardation to the extent that that person lacks sufficient understanding or 
capacity to make, communicate or implement responsible decisions concerning that 
person's property or person is not capable of contracting marriage.  For the purposes of 
this section: 
A.    "Mental illness" means a psychiatric or other disease that substantially impairs a 
person's mental health; and 
B.    "Mental retardation" means a condition of significantly subaverage intellectual 
functioning resulting in or associated with concurrent impairments in adaptive 
behavior and manifested during the developmental period. 
4.  Polygamy.  A marriage contracted while either party has a living wife or husband 
from whom the party is not divorced is void. 
5.  Same sex marriage prohibited.  Persons of the same sex may not contract 
marriage. 
SUMMARY 
This initiated bill repeals the provision that limits marriage to one man and one 
woman and replaces it with the authorization for marriage between any 2 persons that 
meet the other requirements of Maine law. It also specifies that a marriage between 2 
persons of the same sex in another state that is valid in that state is valid and must be 
recognized in this State. It also provides that a member of the clergy is not required to 
perform and a church, religious denomination or other religious institution is not required 
to host a marriage in violation of the religious beliefs of that member of the clergy, 
church, religious denomination or other religious institution and that any such refusal 
cannot be the basis for a lawsuit or liability and does not affect the tax-exempt status of 
the church, religious denomination or other religious institution.