Of the 619 marriages that were conducted on Saipan in 2019, a total of 256 were same-sex marriages between tourists, majority of them being Chinese, according to Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office\u2019s marriage coordinator Bobbi Yamada.<\/p>\n
In 2015, when same-sex marriage became legal in the CNMI, only 12 tourist couples got married.
\nThat means the number of same-sex marriages in the CNMI is growing, and that tourists make up 99% of those marriage here on Saipan in 2019, most of them Chinese tourists.<\/p>\n
According to the Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office numbers, the year 2016 had 30 same-sex marriages. There were 75 such marriages in 2017. That number grew to 96 in 2018, and then jumped to a whopping 256 in 2019: 197 were for female couples, and 59 male couples. For 2019\u2019s records, it is a combination of late 2018 until September 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir reactions, when they learn that it\u2019s legal to get married to the same-sex here, are happy and very excited,\u201d said Yamada.<\/p>\n
According to Yamada, China has a large LGBTQ community where they inform each other that it is legal and cheaper to get married to the same-sex in the CNMI than the U.S. mainland.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more common for Chinese tourists to come on Chinese New Year Year just to get married,\u201d said Yamada. She mentioned that there are already 10 same-sex marriages scheduled on Feb. 28 and 29.<\/p>\n
The marriage fee remains the same: nonresidents will still be charged $250 and residents will be charged $130.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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