The gay marriage surge in US states hasn’t reached far flung Caribbean and Pacific territories

By David Crary

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

While more than 70 per cent of U.S. states now allow same-sex marriage, the waves of change have yet to reach America’s far-flung and socially conservative territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.

Of the five territories, only Puerto Rico has faced a lawsuit seeking the right for gay and lesbian couples to wed. A federal judge there, bucking the trend in federal courts on the mainland, rejected the suit. That case is under appeal.

Advocacy groups say no same-sex couples have stepped forward to make a legal case for marriage rights in the other territories _ the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Marianas.

The five territories would be covered by a possible U.S. Supreme Court ruling establishing a constitutional right for same-sex couples to wed.