Same-sex couples who live in Rhode Island can get married in Massachusetts, a judge ruled yesterday.

Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Thomas E. Connolly ruled that Rhode Island law does not expressly prohibit gay marriage. Added to a previous ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, that means town clerks in Massachusetts must issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples from Rhode Island.

Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch issued a statement yesterday clarifying that Connolly's ruling does not mean town clerks in Rhode Island will issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples.

"This ruling does not authorize same-sex marriage in Rhode Island and it does not mean that Rhode Island will recognize a same-sex marriage performed in Massachusetts," Lynch said. "As I have consistently explained, only the Rhode Island legislature or a Rhode Island Court can decide if a same-sex marriage is valid in Rhode Island."

The decision has immediate implications for one Rhode Island couple. Wendy Becker and Mary Norton, of Providence, were among eight couples who filed a suit challenging the way Massachusetts town clerks were applying the law.

"We're pretty elated," Becker said yesterday.

Connolly's decision appears final -- Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly said he did not plan to appeal -- but Becker said she and Norton, who have been together 18 years, are going to get married "as soon as administratively possible."

"Call us paranoid, but we'd like to get it done," Becker said.

Becker, 45, teaches social work at Rhode Island College. Norton, 46, is director of research administration for Brown University's division of biology and medicine. They are raising two children together, a 3-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter.

Becker said she and Norton want to get married because of the legal rights marriage would confer, with respect to one another and their children. But more importantly, Becker said, "In our society, marriage has a very specific meaning, and people understand what it's about. It's about love and commitment and honor and respect."

In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state in the country to legalize gay marriage. Becker and Norton applied for a marriage license in Attleboro that May. Their application was denied after Governor Romney directed city and town clerks to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples from other states, citing a 1913 law that forbids nonresidents from marrying in Massachusetts if their marriage would not be legal in their home state.

Becker and Norton joined couples from Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont in bringing the lawsuit. (Another Providence couple, Judi and Lee McNeil-Beckwith, were among the original plaintiffs but withdrew from the case.)

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in March that clerks could not issue licenses for same-sex couples from states whose laws prohibit gay marriage, upholding the 1913 law.

(Massachusetts is the only state in the nation to allow same-sex marriage. Connecticut and Vermont have civil-union laws that give gay couples all the legal rights enjoyed by heterosexuals, but prohibit gay marriage.)

The March ruling meant the couples from Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont would not be able to marry in Massachusetts. In July, a New York appellate court ruling that that state's ban on gay marriage was constitutional put the New York couple into that category as well. Consequently, Connolly only addressed Rhode Island in yesterday's ruling, although the decision would also apply to other states without bans on gay marriage.

Connolly wrote that "an exhaustive search" turned up nothing in Rhode Island's Constitution, state laws or Supreme Court case law that expressly forbids gay marriage.

Within hours of the judge's ruling, GLAD -- Gay and Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the Boston-based group whose lawyer represented Becker, Norton and the other plaintiffs -- had posted on its Web site a 32-page "Marriage Guide for Rhode Island Couples," updated to reflect the court decision.

Jenn Steinfeld, cochair of Marriage Equality Rhode Island, said yesterday that the organization would continue to push for General Assembly passage of a bill that allows same-sex marriage, but would not attempt to circumvent the legislative process and use the judicial system to enable gay marriage.

"We know that until there is a proactive change in the laws, there's always going to be resistance to changing the policy," Steinfeld said.

egudrais@projo.com / (401) 277-7045