BOSTON — Massachusetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage, sued the U.S. government Wednesday over a federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
The federal Defense of Marriage Act interferes with the right of Massachusetts to define and regulate marriage as it sees fit, state Attorney General Martha Coakley said.
The 1996 law denies federal recognition of same-sex marriage and gives states the right to refuse to recognize same- sex marriages performed in other states. Massachusetts is the first state to challenge the federal law.
Meanwhile, same-sex- marriage foes in Maine said Wednes day that they had collected enough signatures to put the state’s pending law on the November ballot for a possible override.
