08:04 AM EST on Monday, February 9, 2004

BY ELIZABETH MEHREN
Los Angeles Times

The Cape Cod community long known for welcoming gays and lesbians is already marketing itself as a wedding mecca.

PROVINCETOWN, Mass. -- A thick blanket of snow carpeted the main avenue of this resort at the tip of Cape Cod on Saturday, lending a false sense of winter serenity. Most of the shops on Commercial Street are shut tight.

But behind those closed doors, the inns and restaurants and town offices of this famously Bohemian community were buzzing as Provincetown prepares to reinvent itself as the gay Niagara Falls. Thanks to a court decision that will make Massachusetts the only state in the country to permit gay and lesbian marriages, Provincetown expects a tidal wave of same-sex wedding ceremonies.

Barring intervention from the state legislature -- and the wording of the decision last week from the state's highest court makes that unlikely -- town clerk Douglas Johnstone could begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples as early as May 17.

On Wednesday, the full House and Senate will meet for a joint constitutional convention to consider a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in Massachusetts.

If a majority of lawmakers in two consecutive legislative sessions vote in favor of the amendment, it would then go before voters as a ballot referendum in 2006.

Massachusetts requires a three-day waiting period, so the "I do's" could start here on May 20, just as the crocuses are bursting behind white picket fences.

"We're getting ready for it as best as we can," Johnstone said before pausing to field the latest in an average of 20 or more phone inquiries from around the country. E-mails are also pouring in, diverting Johnstone from his normal workload of handing out hunting permits, dog licenses and voter-registration forms.

With an office staff of "one and a half people" -- the clerk in this town of 4,000 shares his assistant with several other departments -- Johnstone and tourism director Patricia Fitzpatrick plan to enlist volunteer "ushers" to help with the anticipated crush on May 17.

AP photo RALLYING CRY: Opponents of same-sex marriage, including Boston's Roman Catholic Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, rallied on Boston Common yesterday.

"I think many people in the community, both gay and straight, are going to want to help out, because this is such a historic event," Johnstone said.

A spirit of openness long has drawn artists and writers to Provincetown. Norman Mailer chose to live in "P-town," as the town is known, over Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket, and Eugene O'Neill produced many of his plays at the Provincetown Theater. Stanley Kunitz, the nonagenarian former U.S. poet laureate, still tends his garden in Provincetown in the summer.

The welcoming qualities of Provincetown helped turn it into the country's best-known gay and lesbian beach-season destination. Half of the town's year-round residents are gay and lesbian, according to Fitzpatrick. In the summer, she said, the figure swells to 70 percent, "maybe higher."

But the tradition of tolerance long predates the town's current proclivities, many residents are inclined to point out. It was in Provincetown harbor that the Mayflower first dropped anchor in the New World in 1620. For five weeks before sailing on to Plymouth, the ship anchored here while land scouts unsuccessfully sought a source of fresh water.

Aboard the vessel, Capt. John Bradford drafted a document to outline the rules of governance as the Pilgrims settled in Massachusetts. The Mayflower Compact served as John Adams' model for the constitution of Massachusetts, and in turn for the U.S. Constitution.

"So here we are on Bradford Street," said Lynette Molnar, co-owner of Provincetown's Fairbanks Inn, "and 300-plus years later we are making history again."

In a parlor where Out magazine sits alongside copies of Martha Stewart Living, Molnar said scores of same-sex couples have held commitment ceremonies in the converted home of an 18th-century sea captain. "But we have never used the 'w' word before."

Now Molnar actively markets gay weddings -- offering everything from a pre-wedding "pop-the-question" package to conventional "Here Comes the Bride"-type ceremonies. "In the spirit of who we are," Molnar said she has also designed what she calls "the 'tres' gay" wedding option -- featuring lots of lots of dancing and other flourishes.

Up the road at the Crowne Pointe Inn, co-owner Tom Walter said the calls about same-sex weddings have been "out of control," especially since the court clarified its decision last week.

"Usually we average 7 to 10 (heterosexual) weddings per year," Walter said. "Now we are averaging 7 to 10 (gay and lesbian) wedding requests per week."

Regardless of the gender-inclination of the partners, Provincetown weddings tend toward the inventive, Walter said.

"They're not like the typical weddings of Sally and Joe in the Midwest. You're not going to see too many sit-down dinners and 16-tier cakes," he said. "It's more like a ceremony on the beach, followed by a fabulous cocktail party."

Although she, too, has been inundated with inquiries about scheduling same-sex marriages, the Rev. Alison Hyder said the legalization of gay unions would have little effect on the way she does business: "All that will happen is that I will have another piece of paper to sign, and more questions to ask and answer."

The price is the same, too, Hyder said -- she charges $300 for her services and use of the big white church -- whether it is called a wedding or not.

In her four years as minister at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House here, Hyder said 87 percent of the nuptial rites she has conducted have involved lesbian couples, 5 to 7 percent have united straight couples "and the rest have been gay men."

Hyder said she uses virtually identical language for weddings and commitment ceremonies. The exception is what she chooses to pronounce the couple as the ritual concludes, Hyder said.

"I have said 'wife and wife,' she said. "But more often, people choose something like 'partners for eternity,' " a phrase she admits has a slightly funereal overtone.

Far from somber, the matrimonial avalanche is likely to make this gay resort even cheerier.

Business owners are ecstatic, as they envision a lucrative industry growing up around same-sex marriages. Indeed, Rick Murray, the owner of the Crown & Anchor Inn and tavern on Commercial Street, quipped Saturday that all the town needs is a beach-front wedding chapel.