« Go back a post || Return to G-A-Y homepage || Haul tail to next post »
02/04/2008
NY gays given reason to vacation in Canada
In an exciting development for Empire State queers, A New York appellate court ruled on Friday that the state must recognize same-sex marriages that have been performed elsewhere. And unlike that frenemie who you recognize in the grocery store but swerve your cart down the cereal aisle in order to avoid an annoying conversation, NY state government won't be able to cower behind a stack of Lucky Charms so as to ignore any elsewhere-married gays they might encounter. No, no -- they now have to both recognize the existence of the married abroad gays in their midst, as well as validate that existence with parity in terms of state-level rights and benefits:
NY: State Court Recognizes Gay Marriages From Elsewhere [NY Times]
Appeals Court Says State Must Recognize New York Couple’s Same-Sex Marriage [NYCLU]
Now of course we NY-based queers are still very much waiting for the day when our marriages will be less a jigsaw puzzle that we have to piece together over time and space, and more of a simple stay-at-home matter involving only love, a marriage license, an open bar, and a gift registry at Barneys. But for now, this is certainly a promising step on the road towards putting this antiquated bulls*t behind us..
Your thoughts
My partner and I are getting married this April in Ottawa. We had planned this weeks before this ruling came down. As a teacher, I am able to add him to my benefits due to an Executive Order in May 2007.
The only thing that concerns me about this ruling is that no one has reported anything about all the state rights that come along with marriage equality. Saw a lot of information about how public and private employers have to recognize the marriage, but couldn't find anything about tax benefits, inheritance rights, etc. In fact, one of the articles by a pro-gay site said that there are over 1300 state rights we still need to work on getting.
So I'm not sure where this ruling leaves us. We'll be talking to a lawyer who deals with issues faced by gay couples, so hopefully she'll be able to sort all this stuff out.
What does make me very happy though is that I can't imagine the state appealing this ruling. AG Cuomo supported Martinez, the Gov is pro-marriage equality and we have a Dem majority in the Assembly that won't allow a so-called DOMA.
It's good to know that when we are travelling throughout the Northeast, we are protected.
Posted by: stojef | Feb 4, 2008 10:11:23 AM
comments powered by Disqus
