Gay marriages took a place in New York State

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New York Town Holds Gay Weddings as Debate Spreads
Fri Feb 27, 3:00 PM ET Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo!


By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. (Reuters) - The battle over gay marriage in the United States spread on Friday to a small New York town whose mayor began marrying same-sex couples in the first such ceremonies in the state.


Reuters
Slideshow: Same-Sex Marriage Issues




The weddings in the village of New Paltz, about 80 miles north of Manhattan, came on the day California's attorney general planned to ask that state's Supreme Court to rule on the legality of over 3,300 gay weddings in the past two weeks in San Francisco.


New Paltz Mayor Jason West -- the state's first elected Green Party mayor -- married couples in a festive atmosphere outside Village Hall in what the 26-year-old official has described as "legal marriage ceremonies." West had so far officiated at 19 gay weddings on Friday.


Some 200 people cheered and held up placards saying: "Congratulations" and "Bush Get Out of My Bedroom," while a much smaller group of protesters held signs saying: "Gay Marriage is Morally Wrong" and "Pray for Them."


Among those who tied the knot in the tiny college town were Billiam van Rostenberg, 39, from Long Island, and Major Jeffrey McGowan, 38.


"My whole life I felt discriminated against. I feel a great sense of relief. I am very happy," van Rostenberg said after his nuptials to his partner of six years. "We live in a country where good things can still happen."


West ended each ceremony saying, "By the powers vested in me by the state of New York, I now declare you legally wed," altering the normal "husband and wife" ending to that phrase.


But New York's Department of State said in a statement it defined marriage as a union "of one man and one woman" and that anyone marrying a gay couple "would be violating state law and (be) subject to the penalties in law."


ELECTION-YEAR ISSUE


Gay marriage has become a contentious election-year issue.


Weddings in San Francisco grabbed media attention after that city's mayor defied state law to allow gay nuptials. On Thursday, comedian Rosie O'Donnell married her domestic partner in San Francisco, long a center of gay rights.


A New Mexico county also granted same-sex marriage licenses recently.


Massachusetts' top court has ordered lawmakers to allow gay marriages by mid-May, saying anything less than fully fledged marriage would make gays second-class citizens.


President Bush (news - web sites) said this week he would support a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as between a man and a woman.


Some of those in New Paltz said they rushed from as far away as New Jersey and Long Island after hearing of the planned weddings hours earlier. More couples showed up than West said he would be able to marry on Friday.


The marriages went ahead even though the town's clerk had refused to issue the couples with state marriage licenses.


Gays in Long Island said they would push for gay marriage next week, organizing an effort to march into dozens of town clerk offices until they find one who will marry them.





If none agreed, the Long Island Coalition for Same-Sex Marriage said it would file a lawsuit on the grounds the New York state Constitution bans discrimination.

"We are hoping to find a town clerk who will stand up and do the right thing," the group's executive director, David Kilmnick, said in a telephone interview. "If not, we will make a legal challenge."

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told WABC radio he had no plans to offer gay marriage in America's most-populous city.
 
hmm..I wonder if Bush is tearing his hair apart.... :lol:
 
I don't think this is getting out of hand. I think this is a great way of have a mass civil disobedience because the majority just don't understand what it is like to be a gay couple. I have been to New Pfalz, and it's a nice little town where one of my friends live. It's strange New Pfalz would do it before New York City. Coooool!
 
what about califorina? oh wait that already happened...
 
Mission : Impossible 3: The Gay Marriage

...expect The Possible
 
From: http://www.comcast.net/News/DOMESTI...US_/05c449f8-7711-4d47-b6a9-1db5e741651d.html

N.Y. Town's Mayor Charged in Gay Weddings
By MICHAEL HILL, Associated Press Writer

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. - The village's mayor was charged Tuesday with 19 criminal counts for performing marriage ceremonies for gay couples.

Jason West was charged with solemnizing marriages for couples who had no licenses, a misdemeanor under the domestic relations law, according to Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams.

Although West could face a maximum penalty of a year in jail, the prosecutor said a jail term wasn't being contemplated at this point.

The 26-year-old Green Party mayor said he will plead innocent at his court hearing Wednesday and that he would still go through with his plans to marry as many as two dozen gay couples Saturday.

"I'm incredibly disappointed," West said. "Apparently, it's a crime to uphold the constitution of New York state."

Click the link above to read more...
 
"...State Sen. Thomas Duane, a Manhattan Democrat and one of three openly gay state lawmakers, called Williams' actions "malicious."

"Does the Ulster County D.A. really want to put someone in jail for recognizing long-term relationships between people?" he said. "Does he really want to put in jail someone who recognizes same-sex families? Really, the Ulster County D.A. should be prosecuted for malicious prosecution, which is a felony in New York." (http://www.comcast.net/News/DOMESTI...b5e741651d.html)

WTG to Sen. Duane!!! he made a REAL good point!!!!!

i dont think that Mayor West should spend a day in jail nor pay any fines as hes not broken any laws and like i think Banjo or someone had cited the 10 ammendments and it DOES say "equal to all" so therefore we should have equal rights!!!
 
You're right. I check - New York has no such a law on same-sex. But, they use without law to ban on same-sex marriage. How odd. :beer:
 
They just dont want any same sex marriage in ANY states, that's the problem. :roll:

They dont give a crap about "equality" in everyone, as they should REALLY deserve the respect they take, homosexualy or hetersexual, no matter what.

It takes time for many people to be mature about this situation
 
KEEP on KICKING ASS and let's show thw world we ARE who we are and thats our equal rights!
 
Another Town in New York to recognise same-sex marriages

From http://uk.gay.com/headlines/5889

Same-sex couples marry in New York
Jen Christensen, Gay.com/PlanetOut.com Network
Monday 1 March, 2004 10:53 | More from this date | Today's headlines

Gay couples in New York state came two steps closer to legal recognition of their relationships on Friday. One mayor is recognising legally granted marriage licenses for gay couples; another mayor is performing the marriage ceremonies himself.

John Shields, the mayor of Nyack, N.Y., made his town the first in the United States to recognise gay couple's marriage licenses -- be they from Canada or San Francisco or any other locale.

Taking critics head on, Mayor Shields said in a press release, "I don't understand how extending marriage to same-gender couples undermines traditional marriage or weakens community."

He added, "A powerful way to affirm traditional marriage is to have strong marriages between committed people. That is what the mayors of San Francisco and New Paltz are doing."

The mayor of New Paltz, a village just 75 miles from New York City, became only the second mayor in the United States to directly help gay couples marry. Mayor Jason West, 26, married 21 same-sex couples on Friday.

The first couple to marry was Billiam Van Roestenberg and Jeffrey McGowan, from New York City. Hundreds of supporters and family members witnessed the nuptials, which were performed outside in the village hall parking lot. With only a few protestors in attendance, the supportive crowd cheered as the ceremony ended.

During the ceremony, Mayor West put the marriage in perspective: "What we're witnessing in America today is the flowering of the largest rights movement the country's had in a generation."

After he said he would perform the ceremonies, West's office said it had "innumerable" phone calls and e-mails from gay couples wanting to marry. Over 100 couples joined a waiting list on the town's Web site for future ceremonies.

Mayor West said he felt it was his "moral obligation" to perform the ceremonies. Under New York law a couple does not necessarily need a license to be recognised as married.

Mayor West told CNN, "For a marriage to be legal in this state all that's required is for it to be properly solemnised by someone with authority to do so." West believes he has that authority. Unlike in San Francisco, where nearly 3,400 gay couples have received marriage licenses, the New Paltz village clerk has not issued licenses.

Even as the ceremony was ending, the state Health Department asked Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to seek an injunction to prevent any further ceremonies. Spitzer's office said he won't seek an injunction, but he is looking at the options.

Joe Tarver, spokesman for New York's statewide civil rights organization, Empire State Pride Agenda, said he didn't know what the end result of Friday's legal actions would be, but he had hope.

"Ultimately, it will be up to the governor and the state Legislature, who have had a growing recognition of our issues and treating our families like any other families under the law," he said. "We hope what the mayor of Nyack did in recognising these marriages will inspire public officials across the country to do the same."
 
Official Recognition of Same Sex Marriages in New York

http://www.lambdalegal.org/cgi-bin/iowa/documents/record?record=1458

Lambda Legal Vows Legal Action if Needed To Ensure Compliance With NY Attorney General’s Order that Gay Couples Married Elsewhere Are Legally Married in NY

(New York, Wednesday, March 3, 2004) - The Attorney General of New York State said today that same-sex couples who validly married elsewhere are legally married throughout the state, and Lambda Legal vowed to take legal action if any local governments refuse to comply with the law.

Attorney General Elliott Spitzer issued an advisory to local officials saying they should not authorize or solemnize marriages of same-sex couples themselves, though he did not say whether it’s constitutional to deny such marriages. But in the first statewide clarification of its kind in the nation, Spitzer made it clear that couples who have legally married in Canada, San Francisco, Portland, Oregon, or elsewhere are also married under New York law and must be given all of the rights and protections of marriage in the state.

Click on link above to read more...

I think although gay marriages are not officially performed in New York State, I think it is a step for them to recognise marriages conducted legally in other parts of the world. :thumb:
 
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