Mr Mascilo, originally from Torquay, and his fiancé, Trevor Pinker, who is from Reading, will join about 110 other same-sex couples to apply for their marriage licences at the town clerk’s office in this gay beach resort on Cape Cod.

“We are doing it because we can, and it’s an amazing thing for us to celebrate the life we have had together in a way that has never been possible,” he said.

From one minute past midnight gay marriages became legal in Massachusetts — the first and only one of America’s 50 states to allow same-sex couples to wed. Last November’s ruling by the state’s top court threw America into turmoil, creating legal chaos and provoking President Bush into declaring support for a constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage.

With the decision, America becomes only the fourth country in the world, with the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada’s three most populous provinces, to allow homosexuals to marry. Here in “P-Town” — the “gayest” town in America according to the 2000 census, where same-sex couples make up 13.2 per cent of households — the legal change is cause for partying.

Souvenir shops sell “Just Married: May 17 Provincetown” T-shirts, one hotel has strung up a banner proclaiming “Congratulations newlyweds”, and a gay bar organised a “Last Chance” disco for those on the brink of marriage.

David Schermacher’s Provincetown parties catered for five “commitment ceremonies” for gay couples last year. This summer his firm is already booked for 19 gay weddings. “They go from being casual celebrations with just family and close friends to the traditional wedding with a tented area and sit-down dinner, dancing and full bar,” he explains. “There is no difference between gay weddings and straight weddings.”

Local hotels are booked for wedding parties and the big white Unitarian Universalist Meeting House in the centre of town is offering same-sex church services. Even the Pilgrim Monument, a 252ft granite column commemorating the Mayflower’s landing in Provincetown, before the Pilgrim Fathers decided to press on across the bay to Plymouth, is promoting itself as a location for wedding receptions.

Mr Mascilo has sent out invitations to 50 family and friends for a celebration this month. His mother and sister will be making the trip from Britain. “After 30 years together, it will be an extremely emotional experience,” he said.

The couple met in Oxford when Mr Pinker was doing a doctorate in organic chemistry and Mr Mascilo was a management trainee at the Oxford Motor Lodge. They moved to Provincetown a decade ago and now own the Beacon Light hotel and the newly opened Oxford Inn.

Like many, Mr Mascilo, now a naturalised American citizen, was taken by surprise by the Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling that same-sex marriage must be allowed under the Massachusetts Constitution.

The decision makes gay marriage fully legal in Massachusetts, unlike other places such as San Francisco and New Paltz, New York, that have offered marriage licences in defiance of state authorities.

“It gives us legal rights we have never had before, things like medical benefits, or having a say if one of us has an illness, or in the transfer of property,” Mr Mascilo said. “We never had the chance to enjoy the same rights that straight couples accept as a matter of course. They have never had to fight for those rights.”

Massachusetts same-sex marriages will not, however, be recognised by the federal Government, so gay and lesbian couples will not be able to take advantage of some 1,000 federal benefits offered to heterosexual husbands and wives.

Massachusetts legislators have also taken the first step to overturning the court’s decision by seeking to amend the state constitution to outlaw gay marriage and substitute “civil unions”. The proposal cannot come into force unless approved in a referendum in November 2006. Nevertheless, same-sex couples who receive legal marriage licences face the prospect that they may be forcibly converted to “civil unions ” in two years’ time.

Mitt Romney, the Republican Governor of Massachusetts’, remains a staunch opponent of gay marriage. His spokesman suggested last week that the next step was “marrying ten-year-olds”. In an attempt to prevent gay couples flocking to the state from across the country, Mr Romney has decreed that the state must enforce a 1913 law that bars couples from marrying in Massachusetts if their unions would not be recognised back home.

But many town clerks plan to follow their usual practice and simply ask couples to sign an affidavit stating that they know of no impediments to their marriage. The state has revised the marriage application to include a new line that asks: “If not a Massachusetts resident, I intend to reside in
. . .” But Provincetown’s clerk will allow applicants to leave the answer blank.

Chuck Anzalone, a local graphic artist, who is marrying his partner of 27 years, Peter Bez, complained of the uncertainty. “Even when you fill out your tax forms, you may say you legally married in-state and not in your federal returns,” he said. “We are going into this a little blind.”

Spread of same-sex unions

• Civil unions between gay couples are now legal in Massachusetts and Vermont and are tolerated in some cities in California, New York, New Mexico and Oregon
• Several other states will vote on the issue in the next few months
• Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands are the only countries where same-sex couples can legally marry
• South Africa, Cambodia and Sweden have announced plans to follow suit, and Spain is expected to be the next country to do so

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