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"Whether and who to marry, how to express sexual intimacy, and whether and how to establish a family - these are among the most basic of every individual's liberty and due process rights...and central to personal freedom and security is the assurance that the laws will apply equally to persons in similar situations... Barred access to the protections, benefits, and obligations of civil marraige, a person who enters into an intimate, exclusive union with another of the same sex is arbitrarily deprived membership in one of our community's most rewarding and cherished institutions" - majority statement by Massachusetts Supreme Court