Same Sex Marriage legal in New York

Blind_Io

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Sorry, but this needs its own thread.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/25/us-gaymarriage-newyork-idUSTRE75N5ZA20110625

New York's state legislature gave final approval on Friday to same-sex marriages, a key victory for gay rights ahead of the 2012 presidential and congressional elections.
New York will become the sixth and most populous state to allow gay marriage. State senators voted 33-29 to approve marriage equality legislation introduced by Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat in his first year of office.

"New York has finally torn down the barrier that prevented same-sex couples from exercising the freedom to marry and from receiving the fundamental protections that so many couples and families take for granted," Cuomo said in a statement.

After Cuomo signs the bill into law, same-sex weddings can start taking place in New York in 30 days, though religious institutions and nonprofit groups with religious affiliations will not be compelled to officiate at such ceremonies.

"I have to define doing the right thing as treating all persons with equality and that equality includes within the definition of marriage," said Republican Senator Stephen Saland, speaking before the bill was passed.

Cheers erupted in the Senate gallery in the state capital Albany and among a crowd of several hundred people who gathered outside New York City's Stonewall Inn, where riots following a police raid in 1969 sparked the modern gay rights movement.

"It's about time. I want to get married. I want the same rights as anyone else," Caroline Jaeger, 36, a student, who was outside the Stonewall Inn.

But New York's Catholic bishops said they were "deeply disappointed and troubled" by the passage of the bill.

"We always treat our homosexual brothers and sisters with respect, dignity and love. But we just as strongly affirm that marriage is the joining of one man and one woman," the New York State Catholic Conference said in a statement.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an advocate for gay marriage who lobbied state lawmakers in recent weeks, said the vote was an "historic triumph for equality and freedom."

"Together, we have taken the next big step on our national journey toward a more perfect union," he said in a statement.

ELECTION ISSUE
President Barack Obama, who attended a fundraiser in New York on Thursday for Gay Pride Week, has a nuanced stance on gay issues. Experts say he could risk alienating large portions of the electorate if he came out strongly in favor of such matters as gay marriage before the 2012 elections.

During the 2008 election Obama picked up important support from Evangelicals, Catholics, Latinos and African-Americans, some of whom oppose gay marriage, which has become a contentious social issue being fought state-by-state.

In California a judge last year overturned a ban on gay marriage, but no weddings can take place while the decision is being appealed. It could set national policy if the case reaches the U.S. Supreme Court.

Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriage, and Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois and New Jersey approved civil unions. The first legal same-sex marriages in the United States took place in Massachusetts in 2004.

But gay marriage is banned in 39 states.
In New York a recent Siena poll found 58 percent of New Yorkers support gay marriage, while nationally the U.S. public is nearly evenly split, with 45 percent in favor and 46 percent opposed, according to a Pew Research poll released last month.

New York's Democrat-dominated Assembly voted 80-63 in favor of gay marriage last week and passed the amended legislation on Friday 82-47.

A key sticking point had been over an exemption that would allow religious officials to refuse to perform services or lend space for same-sex weddings. Most Republicans were concerned the legal protection was not strong enough, so legislative leaders worked with Cuomo to amend his original bill.

"God, not Albany, settled the definition of marriage a long time ago," said Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., a Pentecostal minister and the only Democrat to vote against the measure.
However, fears of a slew of litigation arising from a possible religious exemption to New York's proposed same-sex marriage law are not borne out by experience with similar laws in other states, legal experts say.
These two images sum it up, I think.

https://pic.armedcats.net/b/bl/blind_io/2011/06/24/lesbian-make-out.jpg

https://pic.armedcats.net/b/bl/blind_io/2011/06/24/Falling_20Dominos_20Fotolia_9449038_Subscription_L.jpg
 
I do feel a bit sorry for my cousin, though. She and her partner live in Rhode Island, with her mom and brother and sister-in-law in Maine. The only two states in New England that do not allow same sex marriage!

But I'm sure Rhode Island will come around soon. Maine, on the other hand - well, Maine has always been a bit behind the times and now that New York has legalized same sex marriage, Maine is even less likely to legalize it. (The only people that Mainers hate more than Massholes are friggin' New Yorkers.)
 
I am ashamed @ California regarding this subject. Fucking overly conservative nutcases.
 
I'm 100% straight and 100% in support of same sex marriage, I truly hope the dominos do begin to fall.
 
Hellz yeah!
 
Blame the Mormons and Roman Catholics.

Probably. We got a lot of the conservatives here in SD, but I can't pin it down and say that they're the ones that are causing the problem. I think it's more to do with the govt.


Anyways. My friend Patrick should move to NY then and get married to his partner of 6 years. He claims that they don't need the title officially but his partner Chris has been very sensitive about the issue from what I hear.


I wonder how Berkeley-ites are reacting to this.
 
Yankees still suck, however. And Manhattan clam chowder is awful.

:wub: New York
 
I'm 100% straight and 100% in support of same sex marriage, I truly hope the dominos do begin to fall.


This. I am the same and see no reason not to let everyone.
 
I'm 100% straight and 100% in support of same sex marriage, I truly hope the dominos do begin to fall.

:+1: I don't understand why other people's choices and personal lives should be the concern of anybody other than themselves.
 
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Unfortunately this country was founded by people who were not in search of religious freedom and fleeing oppression, but were practicing oppression and seeking to curtail other people's religious freedom.

I mean, before coming to North America, the pilgrims got kicked out of Holland. How bad do you have to be if the Dutch aren't willing to put up with you?
/history lesson
 
I'm 100% straight and 100% in support of same sex marriage, I truly hope the dominos do begin to fall.
another :+1: from me

It's got a lot to do with your own insecurity if you want to govern which gender a man or a woman may fall in love with, which is what bans on marriages and civil unions are ultimately about.
 
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No, no! It's about protecting the sacred institution of marriage! (Says the man currently married to his fourth wife - and is secretly hoping she never finds out about his mistress.)
 
another :+1: from me

It's got a lot to do with your own insecurity if you want to govern which gender a man or a woman may fall in love with, which is what bans on marriages and civil unions are ultimately about.

You just hit the nail on he head I feel. :+1:
 
Here's some more (old) news on the issue:

SAN FRANCISCO?Spokespersons for the National Gay & Lesbian Recruitment Task Force announced Monday that more than 288,000 straights have been converted to homosexuality since Jan. 1, 1998, putting the group well on pace to reach its goal of 350,000 conversions by the end of the year.
 
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