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Ellen Goodman Same-sex marriage hasn’t ruined Massachusetts
Ellen Goodman is a nationally syndicated columnist.

   Back in 2004, a month before the first wedding bells rang for same-sex couples, then-Gov. Mitt Romney offered his opinion that “Massachusetts should not become the Las Vegas of same-sex marriage.”
   It wasn’t that he wanted to protect Massachusetts’ reputation. He wanted to protect the country from what he regarded as Massachusetts’ folly. For that purpose Romney unearthed a 1913 law that said couples couldn’t be married here unless the unions would be legal in their home states.
   Frankly, I rather fancied the idea of Massachusetts as the new Vegas. What happens here stays here. At about the same time, Britney Spears explained her 55-hour marriage to a childhood friend by saying, “I do believe in the sanctity of marriage, I totally do. But I was in Vegas and it took over me.”
   I can’t imagine an Elvis impersonator driving a pink Cadillac of to-be-weds up Beacon Hill, nor do I equate the push for marriage equality with the quickie wedding. But I can envision a Paul Revere character ushering couples into Old North Church or a Minuteman welcoming them on the Lexington Green. Like, totally. I was in Lexington and it took me over.
   The 1913 law has a rather murky past. It was ostensibly designed so that couples couldn’t escape the marriage laws in their home state. But the law was passed in the aftermath of a front-page scandal involving black heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson’s marriage to a 19-year-old white woman. It had the racist whiff of anti-miscegenation.
   Fast forward to last week. The Massachusetts Legislature finally and firmly ended the push for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. In three years, 10,000 couples have married, the sky hasn’t fallen, pro-marriage legislators were not turned out of office, and we now live with gay neighbors, friends and co-workers who are married. Who wants to take back the stemware?
   But almost as soon as the vote was counted, a question arose about repealing the 1913 law. There’s already a bill in the Legislature to do that. Gov. Deval Patrick — noting the “smelly origins” of the law and calling it “outdated” — has said he’d sign a repeal.
   So opponents again are ramping up fear and loathing of Las Vegas. Or, as Kris Mineau of the Massachusetts Family Institute warns, Massachusetts could “become the Mecca for same-sex marriage.”
   Las Vegas? Mecca? So far, little Rhode Island is the only state that allows gay residents to wed in Massachusetts. We are the Las Vegas of Rhode Island. But some are saying that if we overturn the 1913 law, the marrying hordes will come and go back home with a license and a lawsuit.
   Whether you like or loathe the idea, repealing the 1913 law isn’t likely to have much effect. There are at least 44 states with no chance of recognition because of statutes or constitutional amendments against same-sex marriage. As Joanna Grossman, a family law professor at Hofstra who has written extensively on this subject, says, “There’s nothing much one state can do to change the national landscape.”
   Gay couples can already get married in Canada and come home unmarried. So, too, couples could get married in Massachusetts but go home and be unmarried in, say, Michigan.
   “What makes marriage legally important is recognition by the jurisdiction in which you live,” says Grossman. “There’s the chance that couples would use this to litigate in a handful of other states like New York. There is the chance that, in a few states, a court might rule that even though we don’t permit same-sex marriage, we recognize it if valid elsewhere.” But by and large, what would happen is this: “Massachusetts would suffer a brief economic boom and that would be the end of it.”
   From the get-go, opponents have been raising alarms — and funds — on the notion that same-sex marriage will be “shoved down the throats” of Americans. What’s remarkable is that samesex marriage hasn’t been shoved down the throats but placed before our eyes. In barely over a decade, Gallup reports, the number of Americans who believe in same-sex marriage has risen from 27 percent to 46 percent. The radical idea of civil unions is now the moderate idea.
   Mine may be the only state with full-fledged marriage for some years. It may be less of a launching pad than a laboratory. We need laws for 2007, not 1913. But all in all, don’t confuse us with Vegas or Mecca. What is it the Chamber of Commerce likes to label us? The cradle of liberty. Like, totally.  

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Massachusetts is the cradle of liberal mania, every liberal movement starts in either Mass. or Mexifornia something I wouldn't be proud of.

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Like others of the British colonies along America's Atlantic seaboard in the 17th and 18th centuries, Massachusetts was founded by people seeking in a wilderness for a new way of life involving such then-untried notions as freedom of religion and self-government. These and other ideals were severely tested during more than 150 years of colonial life, but they came to provide much of the ideological underpinning of the American Revolution, from which Massachusetts emerged as one of the founding and leading members of the new United States.

Massachusetts has been, nearly from its founding, a leading force in American education. During the 19th century Boston became synonymous with the highest attainments in America's cultural and artistic life, and the state as a whole provided industrial and financial leadership for the nation. Though these latter positions have long since been yielded to larger and faster-growing states and regions, the history and people of Massachusetts have left an indelible mark on the development of the American consciousness.

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Gay pride focuses on religion, marriage
  
By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press
Sunday, June 24, 2007

NEW YORK -- Religious groups led the city's gay pride parade on Sunday, lending gravity to an often outrageous event that also featured a jumble of drag queens in feather boas, marching bands, motorcycle-riding lesbians, rugby players and samba dancers.
  
"We stand for a progressive religious voice," said Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of New York City's Congregation Beth Simchat Torah. "Those who use religion to advocate an anti-gay agenda, I believe, are blaspheming God's name."

The annual parade, one of dozens around the world, commemorates the 1969 Stonewall riots in which patrons at a Greenwich Village gay bar fought back against a police raid.

At San Francisco's festival, the wife of Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards marked the occasion by splitting with her husband over support for legalized gay marriage.

"I don't know why someone else's marriage has anything to do with me," Elizabeth Edwards said at a news conference before the parade. "I'm completely comfortable with gay marriage."

Kleinbaum, who heads the world's largest predominantly gay synagogue, and the Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Church, were the New York parade's grand marshals, waving from hers-and-his convertibles.

The march took place days after the New York State Assembly passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, which Gov. Eliot Spitzer supports. Although the bill is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled state Senate anytime soon, parade-goers said they were cheered by the Assembly's action.

"This is one very important step toward full equality for all New Yorkers," Kleinbaum said.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, one of the nation's most prominent openly gay elected officials, said she could not predict when the Senate might approve same-sex marriage.

"All conventional wisdom in New York state on gay marriage is out the window," she said. "I think we are really doing better than anyone would ever have thought we could be doing on this."

As in past years, exhibitionists were also on display as the parade inched down Fifth Avenue and into Greenwich Village. Some revelers gyrated in bikini briefs and pranced in spike heels.

But the placement of the Christian, Jewish and Buddhist religious organizations near the head of the march -- ahead of AIDS service groups and political advocacy groups -- gave them unaccustomed prominence.

A Buddhist group carried signs that said "Construct Dignity in Your Heart" and "Don't Block Your Buddha."

"We're all Buddhas," said Hortense De Castro, a teacher from Manhattan. "It's just a matter of letting it come out."

The gay Catholic group Dignity had a float and a giant rainbow flag. Jeff Stone, secretary of the New York chapter, said he was hopeful the church would someday change its stance opposing homosexuality.

"We see that the opinion of ordinary Catholics is changing," he said. "Eventually what happens at the grass roots percolates up in the church."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg marched with Quinn and other elected officials, including Lt. Gov. David Paterson.

Toni Cinanni of Perth, Australia, said she was surprised at the prominence of the church groups.

"I thought the religious groups had hijacked the parade," she said. "I couldn't put it together, religion and sexuality."
New York's parade featured contingents of gay police officers and firefighters, as well as ethnic gay groups including South Asians, Haitians and American Indians. An Argentinian and Uruguayan group featured an Eva Peron impersonator in a flowing gown.

Tens of thousands of people attended the march. Spectators lining Fifth Avenue included gay people sporting rainbow flags and curious tourists.

Andrew Stanley of Shrewsbury, England, said the march was "very colorful."

"I've never seen one before," he said, "but I think it's a good idea."

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"We stand for a progressive religious voice," said Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of New York City's Congregation Beth Simchat Torah. "Those who use religion to advocate an anti-gay agenda, I believe, are blaspheming God's name."

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Assemblyman Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, also interviewed during the debate, said he was listening to it and had not decided how he would vote. Tonko said he had missed the internal debate in the Democratic conference.  

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"We're all Buddhas," said Hortense De Castro, a teacher from Manhattan. "It's just a matter of letting it come out."

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Assemblyman Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, also interviewed during the debate, said he was listening to it and had not decided how he would vote. Tonko said he had missed the internal debate in the Democratic conference.  

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Bull...hhhmmmit!!!

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Change after marriage could be immoral  
First published: Thursday, July 5, 2007

Sylvia Honig (letter, June 30) states that homosexuals, bisexuals, transsexuals, etc., want fair and equal treatment under the law.
Males and females who cannot function as biological males and females are, to put it bluntly, dysfunctional. If they knew they were in this condition before marriage, they had no right to get married to an unknowing partner. Such a marriage could be annulled.

  
Ms. Honig then asks, "If these people change after marriage, are their marriages to people of the same sex now to be considered illegal or immoral?" In a word -- yes.

MAUREEN HEALY
Kinderhook

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Mass. bar sued for gay marriage question  
  
By ERIN CONROY, Associated Press
Last updated: 4:53 p.m., Friday, July 6, 2007

BOSTON -- A man said he failed the Massachusetts bar exam because he refused to answer a question about gay marriage, and claims in a federal lawsuit the test violated his rights and targeted his religious beliefs.
  
The suit also challenges the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, which was legalized in Massachusetts in 2003.

Stephen Dunne, who is representing himself in the case and seeks $9.75 million, said the bar exam was not the place for a "morally repugnant and patently offensive" question addressing the rights of two married lesbians, their children and their property. He said he refused to answer the question because he believed it legitimized same-sex marriage and same-sex parenting, which is contrary to his moral beliefs.

Dunne, 30, was denied a license to practice law in May after scoring 268.866 on the exam, just shy of the 270 passing grade.

His lawsuit against the Massachusetts Board of Bar Examiners and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court also claims the state government is "purposely advancing secular humanism's homosexual agenda."

The "disguised mechanism to screen applicants according to their political ideology has the discriminatory impact of persecuting and oppressing (Dunne's) sincere religious practices and beliefs" protected by the First Amendment, and was "invasive and burdensome," according to the lawsuit filed last month.

Dunne's telephone number was unlisted. He told the Boston Herald he has a law degree from a Boston law school and is attending a Boston business school.

Officials with the state bar would not say how much the questions are worth or how the tests are scored, and the court also declined to comment.

David Yas, editor of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, said the suit was "idiotic" and that Dunne was "completely missing the point about what it means to be a lawyer."

"Knowing the law has nothing to do with agreeing with the law," he said. Yas said if Dunne really believed the question was improper, he should "answer the question correctly, get your law degree and use it to argue for what you believe in."

Lee Swislow, executive director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, said Dunne is trying to use a legal question to advance a political agenda.

"The bar exam was a test of whether he knew how to apply domestic relations law, and he refused to answer," she said. "Now he's suing, and I think that makes him a loser."

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"Knowing the law has nothing to do with agreeing with the law," he said. Yas said if Dunne really believed the question was improper, he should "answer the question correctly, get your law degree and use it to argue for what you believe in."

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Psychologists’ group to review therapies for gays
Activists consider reparative counseling harmful
BY DAVID CRARY The Associated Press

   NEW YORK — The American Psychological Association is embarking on the first review of its 10-year-old policy on counseling gays and lesbians, a step that gayrights activists hope will end with a denunciation of any attempt by therapists to change sexual orientation.
   Such efforts — often called reparative therapy or conversion therapy — are considered futile and harmful by many gay-rights activists. Conservative groups defend the right to offer such treatment, and say people with their viewpoint have been excluded from the review panel.
   A six-member task force set up by the APA has its first meeting Tuesday.
   Already, scores of conservative religious leaders and counselors, representing such groups as the Southern Baptist Convention and Focus on the Family, have written a joint letter to the APA, expressing concern that the task force’s proposals would not properly accommodate gays and lesbians whose religious beliefs condemn gay sex.
   “We believe that psychologists should assist clients to develop lives that they value, even if that means they decline to identify as homosexual,” read the letter, which requested a meeting between APA leaders and some of the signatories.
   APA spokeswoman Rhea Farberman said a decision on when and how to reply to the letter had not yet been made.
   The current APA policy, adopted in 1997, opposes any counseling that treats homosexuality as a mental illness, but does not explicitly denounce reparative therapy. The APA has decided to review the policy at a time when gay-rights groups are increasingly critical of such treatment and groups that support it.
   Conservatives contend that the review’s outcome is preordained because the task force is dominated by gay-rights supporters.
   “We’re concerned,” said Carrie Gordon Earll of Focus on the Family. “The APA does not have a good track record of listening to other views.”
   Joseph Nicolosi, a leading proponent of reparative therapy, predicted the task force would propose a ban of the practice — and he vowed to resist such a move. Nicolosi, who was rejected as a task force nominee, is president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.
   Clinton Anderson, director of the APA’s Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Concerns Office, insisted the panel would base its findings on scientific research, not ideology. He defended the decision to reject certain conservative applicants to the task force.
   “We cannot take into account what are fundamentally negative religious perceptions of homosexuality — they don’t fit into our world view,” Anderson said.
   One of the counselors denied a seat on the task force was Warren Throckmorton, a psychology professor at Grove City College near Pittsburgh.
   Though Throckmorton doesn’t advocate a specific form of reparative therapy, he argues that psychologists should respect gay clients’ religious beliefs in cases where the faith teaches that homosexual behavior is wrong.
   “We work with clients to pursue their chosen values,” he said. “If they are core, unwavering commitments to their religious belief, therapists should not try to persuade them differently under the guise of science.”
   However, one of the task force members, New York City psychiatrist Jack Drescher, said the conservatives don’t acknowledge the harm that might be caused when a gay patient — even voluntarily — undergoes therapy to suppress or change sexual orientation.
   “They want a rubber stamp of approval for a form of therapy that’s questionable in its efficacy, and they don’t want to deal with the issue of harmful side effects,” said Drescher, who is editor of the Journal of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy.
   As the APA planned the policy review, it received input from gayrights groups, including Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.
   PFLAG’s executive director, Jody Huckaby, said reparative therapy had been particularly harmful for young gays whose parents insisted on trying to change their sexual orientation. His group contends these efforts can cause depression and suicidal behavior.
   Current APA policy stipulates that no therapy should occur without “informed consent” of a gay or lesbian client.
   Jason Cianciotto of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said he hoped the APA would declare that no young person could ever be deemed to have given informed consent, and thus no reparative therapy would be approved for minors.  

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Judge: Same-sex couples can wed in Iowa  
  
By DAVID PITT, Associated Press
Friday, August 31, 2007

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A county judge struck down Iowa's decade-old gay marriage ban as unconstitutional Thursday and ordered local officials to process marriage licenses for six gay couples.
  
Gay couples from anywhere in Iowa could apply for a marriage license from Polk County under Judge Robert Hanson's ruling.

Less than two hours after word of the ruling was publicized, two Des Moines men applied for a license, the first time the county had accepted a same-sex application. The approval process takes three days.

Gary Allen Seronko, 51, was listed as the groom on the form and David Curtis Rethmeier, 29, the bride.

"I started to cry because we so badly want to be able to be protected if something happens to one of us," Rethmeier said.

Deputy Recorder Trish Umthun said she took five calls from gay couples after the judge filed his ruling Thursday afternoon and expected a rush of applications Friday.

County attorney John Sarcone said the county will appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court and immediately sought a stay from Hanson that would prevent gay couples from seeking a marriage license until the appeal is resolved. The Supreme Court could refer the case to the Iowa Court of Appeals, consider the case itself or decide not to hear it.

A hearing is likely to be held on the stay motion next week, said Camilla Taylor, an attorney with Lambda Legal, a New York-based gay rights organization.

House Minority Leader Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, said the ruling illustrates the need for a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

"I can't believe this is happening in Iowa," he said. "I guarantee you there will be a vote on this issue come January," when the Legislature convenes.

Massachusetts is the only state where gay marriage is legal, though nine other states have approved spousal rights in some form for same-sex couples. Nearly all states have defined marriage as being solely between a man and a woman, and 27 states have such wording in their constitutions, according the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Dennis Johnson, the lawyer for the six gay couples who sued in 2005 after they were denied marriage licenses, had argued that Iowa has a long history of aggressively protecting civil rights in cases of race and gender. He said the Defense of Marriage Act, which the Legislature passed in 1998, contradicts previous rulings regarding civil rights.

Roger J. Kuhle, an assistant Polk County attorney, argued that the issue is not for a judge to decide.

Hanson ruled that the state law allowing marriage only between a man and a woman violates the constitutional rights of due process and equal protection.

"Couples, such as plaintiffs, who are otherwise qualified to marry one another may not be denied licenses to marry or certificates of marriage or in any other way prevented from entering into a civil marriage ... by reason of the fact that both person comprising such a couple are of the same sex," he said.

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"We stand for a progressive religious voice," said Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of New York City's Congregation Beth Simchat Torah. "Those who use religion to advocate an anti-gay agenda, I believe, are blaspheming God's name."

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Though I oppose civil unions between two individuals of the same gender, the newly granted/acknowledged "rights" must be accompanied by responsibility and liability.  If the government is to recognize these civil unions, the benefits and the costs to those involved must be consistent with those of married heterosexual couples.  That includes the penalty of the "marriage tax", the requirements regarding child support and alimony, etc. in cases of divorce, and the commitment to a monogamous relationship.

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Religious convictions and the rights under the law are two seperate entities.

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Gay NYC policeman files suit
BY SAMUEL MAULL The Associated Press

   NEW YORK — A gay police officer has fi led a discrimination suit against the city and the New York Police Department, saying he was threatened with violence, called vulgar names and treated unfairly by supervisors because of his sexuality.
   The lawsuit was filed by Michael Harrington, 30, who claimed his superior officers failed to take proper action when he told them about the malicious and discriminatory mistreatment he suffered.
   “The hell he’s gone through is heart-wrenching,” said Harrington’s lawyer, George D. Rosenbaum.
   Connie Pankratz, spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department, said the city had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment
   Harrington, a police officer since July 2002, says in court papers he disclosed to another officer at the 75th Precinct in the East New York section of Brooklyn in February 2003 that he was gay and that was the beginning of his problems with co-workers.
   Harrington, of Brooklyn, said in the suit that within months he overheard an officer in the men’s room referring to him as a “f*g**t.” Harrington spoke to the officer, who said he would hurt Harrington if he confronted the officer again.
   Court papers say Harrington also repeatedly sought a transfer from the 75th Precinct but his written applications “kept getting lost.” He was told that after he finally transferred out of the 75th Precinct, someone posted obscene drawings of him in a sex act, the suit claimed.
   While working at the 79th Precinct in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, Harrington brought his domestic partner to the station’s Christmas party. When he introduced his partner, another officer spit out his drink and began laughing.
   Harrington says he complained to a supervisor about being mistreated and the supervisor said he was going to transfer him to the Sixth Precinct in Greenwich Village “so plaintiff could be with his people,” the suit said.
   At the Sixth Precinct, court papers say, a coworker told Harrington in December 2006 that “all faggots should be shot.”
   Harrington was repeatedly denied a chance to work day shifts even after he explained to his supervisors that he needed to do so because he hoped to adopt a child, according to court papers.
   He claimed he was rarely allowed to work in a patrol car with other officers and was almost always assigned the “rookie” job of taking prisoners downtown to central booking or assigned to walk foot patrols.
   According to the suit, by January 2007, stress, harassment and a hostile work environment had caused Harrington to develop stomach cramps and nausea.
   The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court, asked for unspecified monetary damages.  

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Court: Gay marriage should be recognized
The Associated Press

    ROCHESTER — An appeals court has ruled that a gay couple’s marriage in Canada should be recognized in New York.
    The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court on Friday reversed a judge’s ruling in 2006 that Monroe Community College did not have to extend health benefi ts to an employee’s lesbian partner.
    Patricia Martinez, a word processing supervisor, sued the school in 2005, arguing that it granted benefits to heterosexual married couples but denied them to Martinez and her partner, Lisa Ann Golden.
    The couple formalized their relationship in a civil union ceremony in Vermont in 2001 and were married in Canada in 2004.
    The college refused to add Golden to the health care benefits because its contract with the Civil Service Employees Association did not address benefits for same-sex partners. Since then, the contract has been enhanced to extend benefits to an employee’s domestic partner.
    State Supreme Court Justice Harold Galloway dismissed Martinez’ lawsuit in August 2006, saying that the state does not recognize samesex marriages.
    The state Legislature “currently defines marriage as limited to the union of one man and one woman,” he wrote.
    The appellate judges disagreed, determining that there is no legal impediment in New York to the recognition of a same-sex marriage.
    The state Legislature “may decide to prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriages solemnized abroad,” the ruling said. “Until it does so, however, such marriages are entitled to recognition in New York.”
    The New York Civil Liberties Union called Friday’s ruling a victory for families, justice and human rights.

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Governor orders agencies to recognize same-sex marriages
The Associated Press

    NEW YORK — Gov. David Paterson has told New York state agencies that they should begin recognizing same-sex marriages performed in states and countries where they’re legal.
    Paterson spokeswoman Erin Duggan says the governor’s legal counsel sent a memo to all of the state’s agencies telling them they could be violating state human rights law if they don’t start recognizing the unions.
    Duggan says the move is in response to a state appeals court ruling in February in the case of a woman whose partner was denied health benefits by her employer even though she had been legally married in Canada.
    The move is one of the strongest steps the state can take short of action by the Legislature.

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A victory for gay rights
First published: Friday, May 30, 2008

New York is suddenly a more enlightened place than it was that dreary day just two years ago, when its highest court ruled same-sex couples had no right under state law to marry. Governor Paterson's order that New York recognize gay marriages that take place in other states and countries is a clear and bold step toward providing same-sex couples that right in this state.
For now, hundreds and perhaps thousands of gay men and women will have all the rights, especially regarding government employment and related benefits, that married couples of opposite sexes enjoy. That means, for instance, that Patricia Martinez, who works at Monroe Community College in Rochester, no longer can be denied the health benefits the college offers. Ms. Martinez's marriage to another woman, performed in Canada, is of legal standing here in New York.
Mr. Paterson's decree to that effect is already under fire as some sort of sneaky power play around the Legislature and the legislative process.
Just listen to the Rev. Duane Motley of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms.
"He's circumventing the courts and circumventing the Legislature and setting himself up as a dictator and pandering to a very small interest group," the Rev. Motley says of the governor.
In fact, Mr. Paterson is upholding the law, as it applies to all New Yorkers. His order comes in response to a Feb. 1 ruling by a state Appellate Court in Rochester upholding Ms. Martinez's rights to the health benefits her job provides.
That decision means that if New York wishes to deny those rights and others to Ms. Martinez, or any other married gay person, the Legislature would have to vote explicitly to do so.
That puts the Legislature in a crosshairs of sorts. It can't say it wasn't warned, however. The 2006 Court of Appeals decision against gay marriage makes very specific note of the Legislature's power to expand the rights and benefits of marriage.
Here's Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno presenting Mr. Paterson's order as a clash between gubernatorial power and legislative power. Does that mean he plans legislative action to negate the rights a court has upheld and the governor is so serious about protecting?
We ardently hope not. Mr. Paterson's order is as far as he can go. It is best taken as an opportunity for the Senate to pass the same gay marriage bill the state Assembly approved last year.
"Fundamental rights are fundamental rights," Chief Judge Judith Kaye wrote in a powerful dissent to that unfortunate Court of Appeals ruling in 2006. "They are not defined in terms of who is entitled to exercise them."
Now Mr. Paterson has effectively warned others in state government to stop denying those rights to people based on their sexual orientation.
ISSUE:New York recognizes same-sex marriages performed in other states and countries.THE STAKES:How can it ban gay unions here?

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CAPITOL
Gay rights decree is met with joy, condemnation
BY MICHAEL GORMLEY The Associated Press

    On May 19, 2004, Tanya Wexler and Amy Zimmerman, after being together almost 13 years, were married in a small town north of Boston. Four hours later, they were back in their Greenwich Village home, and as far as New York state was concerned, the wedding never happened.
    That changed this month when New York Gov. David Paterson directed state agencies to make sure that same-sex couples are provided as many as 1,300 benefits and rights afforded to married heterosexual couples. They include collecting health and pension benefits, being admitted as “close family” in a hospital room and transferring a business license.
    “We learned about it when we picked up our paper this morning on the front stoop,” said Zimmerman, who with Wexler, a 37-year-old film director, has four children, ages 2 to 8. They rushed to their breakfast table to read the article, then tried to explain it to Jerry, Ella, Ruby and Violet.
    “It was just a great conversation for us to have,” said Zimmerman, 35. “They definitely understand what’s fair and not fair and definitely understand their family isn’t being treated the same way as their friends’ families.”
    For them, Paterson’s two-page memo featured in news accounts nationwide Thursday is a manifesto.
    Others, New York’s Catholic bishops among them, see it as an assault on the family and a big foot in the door toward legalizing same-sex marriage in New York.
    “The definition of marriage predates recorded history,” argued New York State Catholic Conference Executive Director Richard E. Barnes. “No single politician or court or legislature should attempt to redefine the very building block of our society in a way that alters its entire meaning and purpose.”
    Still, Paterson, a Roman Catholic, defended his action Thursday by trying to downplay its magnitude. He said that not only is his decision supported by long-standing civil rights law, but failure to act would expose the state to litigation if it didn’t recognize other states’ marriages for all.
    “We have a time-held and timetested tradition honoring those marital rights,” Paterson said at a Manhattan news conference. “I am taking the same approach that this state always has with respect to out-of-state or marriages conducted in foreign governments being recognized here in the state of New York. I am following the law as it has always existed.”
    Paterson, long a supporter of same-sex marriage rights, rebuked critics who claimed that he crossed the constitution — “they should get a little better informed” — and Republican lawmakers who said he overstepped his bounds — they should go into session and “do something.”
    “As far as I’m concerned, I think it’s beautiful,” Paterson said.
    Neighboring Massachusetts is the only U.S. state that recognizes same-sex marriage, but its residency requirements bar New Yorkers from marrying there. California may follow in June. Canada is among the nations where samesex marriage is legal.
    Even the state’s biggest gay lobby, the Empire State Pride Agenda, is trying to figure out exactly what Paterson’s directive will do in New York and if it will survive a possible challenge in the state’s highest court.
    The organization said the directive will likely be felt in clarifying a surviving same-sex spouse’s rights in the state workers’ compensation program; inheritance of vending, commercial fishing and other commercial licenses; tax breaks on property transfers and jointly filed income tax returns; and conflict-of-interest provisions that prevent spouses from certain activities in regulated businesses like banking and lobbying.
    Rights to the state pension fund were already established by the state Comptroller’s Offi ce in 2004. The state Civil Service Department followed in 2007 for insurance and other state employees’ benefits. Lawmakers approved surviving partners’ workers’ compensation claims from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
    Advocates said that it was unclear whether it would have any effect on private employers’ insurance, which the state regulates.
    Some areas will be decided by courts, including the case cited in Paterson’s memo that so far has been decided only by the midlevel Appellate Division of State Supreme Court, said matrimonial attorney Seymour Reisman of Garden City.
    “I think this will go to the Court of Appeals,” Reisman said. “The courts are not immune to where the public is going, and I think the governor has laid out certainly where he thinks the public should be going.”
    Politically, Paterson’s directive was a strong return to his liberal base after spending the first nine weeks of his time in office staking out a claim as a fiscal conservative. And he boosted the left with a measure that he says won’t cost the state any money.
    Timing also played a role.
    On Wednesday, California’s state government issued a directive that effective June 17, samesex couples could be legally wed in that state. Hours later, Paterson’s office, led by his openly gay chief of staff, Charles J. O’Byrne, released its own memo to agency heads.
    Zimmerman, a Massachusetts native, had to win a 2007 court decision in the Bay State that affirmed that her marriage to Wexler was legal. Several same-sex marriages involving New York couples who wed in Massachusetts before July 2006 were declared valid because New York’s top court had not ruled out same-sex marriages until then.
    “A lot of the benefits and rights that come along with marriage are protections when things go badly,” Zimmerman said, citing hospital care decisions and burial rights among them.      

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they should begin recognizing same-sex marriages

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Lawsuit targets
same-sex marriages

    NEW YORK — A Christian legal organization says it has sued to stop New York from recognizing samesex marriages legally performed in other states.
    The Alliance Defense Fund says it filed its lawsuit Tuesday in a court in the Bronx. Several Republican state senators are named as party to the suit.
    Gay marriage is unconstitutional in New York. Gov. David Paterson however told state agencies on May 14 that New York must recognize same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts, Canada and other places where they are legal.

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New radio ad blasts gay marriage
Updated: 06/04/2008
By: Web Staff

NEW YORK STATE -- A controversial radio ad will begin playing in Albany, New York City and Rochester starting on Thursday. It is being paid for by the National Organization for Marriage.

Members are upset over Governor Paterson's directive to state agencies to begin recognizing gay marriages performed in other states and countries where it is illegal.


Meanwhile, Governor Paterson's move has now been challenged in courts. It's a move that was expected, but the list of plaintiffs may not have been. Among them are several state lawmakers, including Republican state senators Martin Golden and Serphin Maltese, as well as Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco. They have joined a Christian coalition called the Alliance Defense Fund to file an injunction against the Governor. It claims that Paterson's actions defy a 2006 Court of Appeals decision. And it also suggests that Paterson's decision to circumvent the legislature violated the state's constitution.

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Paterson right to defend gay couples’ rights

    First, I would I’d like to give praise to our new governor. Recently he contacted over 1,100 agencies, telling them to respect state laws recognizing gay marriages and to give these married couples all the allowances that straight married couples are allowed [May 29 Gazette]. I’m sure a lot of his advisers didn’t think this was a good time for a new governor to be going to bat on such a controversial issue.
    I find it so sad that the honeymoon is already over for some of our Republican politicians, who just a month ago were also singing his praises and now have turned on him. He is following what our constitution says in respecting other states’ laws and not overturning what is legal in Massachusetts and California. It makes me cry that health coverage and patients’ rights in hospitals are denied just because of who you love and want to spend your life with.
    The Catholic Church wants to take our government to court over this? I feel the church has enough problems with their own priests to be casting any rocks.
    I say let people live the way they feel they must. Let’s praise our new governor for standing up for not only our state, but for what our constitution really was made for: protecting all Americans!
    GRETCHEN CLARKE RONEY
    Glenville

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Coming out in a different world
Despite progress, gay teens can face a difficult time, particularly in school

By SCOTT WALDMAN, Staff writer .
First published: Friday, June 6, 2008

ALBANY -- I am gay.
     
It scared Nick Holterman to write those words for the first time in eighth grade. He took 142 words to tell his mom. He ended the letter with Don't Fret, Don't Panic.
There is something I need to tell you. However, I could not say it to you person to person. I don't know why. Maybe it was because of how you might react. I know you will not react negatively, but I just couldn't do it. I am gay.
Today at Albany High School, where Nick is a 17-year-old junior, everyone knows he's gay. Tonight he's going to the Alternative Prom at the University at Albany in a tutu just to be goofy, he said.
"It's important to know yourself," he said. "You shouldn't be ashamed of who you are."
Nick came out at a time when some celebrities proudly proclaim their homosexuality and the men right across the street from his childhood home live openly as a gay couple. Yet it's not always safe to be out of the closet. In February, a 15-year-old was shot dead in a California school because he was gay. Nationwide over the past decade, at least 181 people have been killed because of their sexuality, according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs.
At the same time, there's arguably more tolerance. For New Yorkers that's reflected in Gov. David Paterson's order that state agencies recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions, including California, which legalized gay marriage.
Nick first heard the word gay in school. He recalled how kids on the playground in first grade started calling him gay, though he had no idea what it meant. By eighth grade, he felt other boys were cute.
He Googled "gay" and "teen" to get what he calls a foundation. It was January 2005. He was 14. He already knew who he was, but he needed to read someone else's words to help figure it out. By May, he was ready to tell his mom. He was terrified.
He had nothing to worry about. Amy Holterman treasured that birthday letter and called it a gift. Her son is now surrounded by friends who snarl at classmates who make slurs about his sexuality.
It was a much different world when Ward Dale, Nick's drama teacher at Albany High, came out in the early 1980s. The AIDS scare had begun and gay marriage was nowhere near the horizon.
Dale waited until college to tell his own parents he was gay. It can still be a struggle to identify yourself as gay, he said.
Now 43, he said many adults don't know how to talk about homosexuality with teens because they focus on the sex instead of love. He remembered how Nick hid behind his long hair as a freshman.
"It's terrifying to finally admit it out loud to yourself," Dale said. "You risk losing everything."
Despite homosexuality's prominence in popular culture, schools are often the most hostile environments for gay teenagers, said Nora Yates, executive director of the Capital District Gay and Lesbian Community Council.Ridicule is common, she said, and teachers and administrators don't often know how to intervene, or care to do so.
The Alternative Prom, which turns 10 tonight, is a refuge for the students, a place where kids won't squeal if they see two boys slow dancing.
"It allows them to think positively about their identity and becoming adults with this identity rather than being persecuted at their high school," Yates said.
Nick knows that bigotry well.
A few months ago, he was alone on the stairwell at Albany High when a bully encountered him. The punch to the chest made Nick stumble.
Perhaps it was just another random act of high school violence, motivated by social class, physical strength or even boredom. But Nick wondered if it was more than that.
He struggles at times. A classmate in math heard him talking about a crush he had for another boy and screamed "Ewww, that's gross." It stings, to hear a homophobic epithet hurled across the school hallway like a rock.
Tonight, in the middle of Pride Week, Nick won't have to worry about getting punched. For him and 300 other gay and straight teens at A-Prom, "gay" is a compliment, not a putdown for a kid who can't catch a football.
Coming out, for Nick, "is a lifelong process," he said. He appreciates the people who let him feel normal. But someday, he said, he'll move to Canada, where he can marry a man. Waldman can be reached at 454-5080 or by e-mail at swaldman@timesunion.com.

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New York has its own definition of marriage Are Canada, Massachusetts and California branches of the New York state government? If not, then why is Gov. David Paterson willing to force state agencies to abide by their definition of marriage, which is contrary to the legally established (and may I add theologically correct) definition that our state has held since her inception?

By THE REV. JOE ROOF Clifton Park
First published: Monday, June 9, 2008

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Juvenile jails change to help transgender kids
The Associated Press

    SYRACUSE — Transgender youth in New York’s juvenile detention centers can now wear whatever uniform they choose, be called by whatever name they want and ask for special housing under a new anti-discrimination policy that advocacy groups say is among the nation’s most progressive.
    “New York is way ahead of the curve,” said Roberta Sklar, a spokeswoman for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
    “When you have a system like the New York Office of Children and Family Services putting out a clear nondiscrimination policy, it should be seen as a model for similar kinds of agencies all over the country,” she said.
    The policy went into effect March 17, the same day Gov. David Paterson was sworn into office to replace the disgraced Eliot Spitzer. Last month, Paterson directed all state agencies to immediately recognize same-sex marriages legally performed elsewhere as valid in New York.
    Paterson spokesman Errol Cockfield said the policy reflects the state’s intention to be “tolerant, responsive and respectful” of gender identity and gender expression issues. Hawaii and California are among the handful of states that have taken steps to afford specifi c civil rights protection to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth in foster care and juvenile detention, said Susan Hazeldean, director of the Peter Cicchino Youth Project for the New York City-based Urban Justice Center.
    In a 2001 report, the center found that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth routinely experienced discrimination, harassment and violence in New York’s juvenile justice system. The state runs 30 juvenile centers with a total of about 1,200 residents. OCFS officials estimate that there are between 20-30 transgender youth in its system.
    “What we were concerned about is that LGBT young people are entering these programs facing a lot of hostility and violence, and coming out more traumatized and more damaged than when they went in,” Hazeldean said.
    “We think this policy is going to make a real difference,” she said.
    Ross Levi, public policy director at Empire State Pride Agenda, the state’s largest gay rights organization, also said the OCFS policy was among the most far-reaching in the country.

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Gay pride parade draws top politicos
BY KAREN MATTHEWS The Associated Press

    NEW YORK — Gay residents cheered Gov. David Paterson on Sunday as he joined the city’s annual gay pride march a month after he directed state agencies to provide full marriage benefits to same-sex couples who were legally married elsewhere.
    “What he did … sends a message that leadership isn’t about waiting. It’s about finding the opportunity. It’s about finding the way to move progress and civil rights forward,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the city’s most powerful openly gay elected official.
    Tens of thousands of gay people and their supporters marched down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue in the always colorful celebration, which is officially called the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride March. A violent thunderstorm halfway through did not halt the parade.
    There were floats, marching bands, stilt walkers, motorcycle riders and bicycle riders wearing T-shirts that said “bike-sexual.”
    “I think it’s sensational,” said Dolores Stoia, who watched from behind police barricades. “I’m not really a big fan of parades, but it’s very entertaining.”
    Paterson, the first New York governor to march in the gay pride parade, took part even though he had cataract surgery to on Saturday.
    “The doctors told me I couldn’t
    1 march today,” he said. “I ran 8 /2 miles Friday. I can march today. And I will.”
    Even though gay couples cannot legally marry in New York, Paterson said last month that the state must recognize marriages legally performed in other states and countries that allow gay marriage.
    California began recognizing same-sex marriage this month, joining Massachusetts as the only U.S. states granting full marriage rights to gays.
    Jim Saslow carried a bouquet to New York’s march and wore a wedding gown stamped with the words, “Coming Here Soon?”
    “Everyone here is thinking if California can do it then we should be able to do it here soon,” he said.
    Martin Leff-Cinthus marched in a purple tunic and a curly lavender wig, a costume meant to honor Hyacinthus, who in Greek mythology was the beloved of the god Apollo.

CRAIG RUTTLE/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Motorcyclists ride on Eighth Street during the gay pride parade in New York on Sunday.

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How Same-Sex 'Marriage' Will Harm Christians

It is all about equal rights, the gay “marriage” lobby keeps telling us. We just want the right to marry, like everyone else.

That is what they are telling us. But that is not what they mean. If same-sex “marriage” becomes the law of the land, we can expect massive persecution of the Church.

As my friend Jennifer Roback Morse notes in the National Catholic Register, “Legalizing same-sex ‘marriage’ is not a stand-alone policy . . . Once governments assert that same-sex unions are the equivalent of marriage, those governments must defend and enforce a whole host of other social changes.”

The bad news is these changes affect other liberties we take for granted, such as religious freedom and private property rights. Several recent cases give us a sobering picture of what we can expect if we do not actively embrace—and even promote—same-sex “marriage.”

For instance, a Methodist retreat center recently refused to allow two lesbian couples to use a campground pavilion for a civil union ceremony. The state of New Jersey punished the Methodists by revoking the center’s tax-exempt status—a vindictive attack on the Methodists’ religious liberty.

In Massachusetts, where judges imposed gay marriage a few years ago, Catholic Charities was ordered to accept homosexual couples as candidates for adoption. Rather than comply with an order that would be harmful to children, Catholic Charities closed down its adoption program.

California public schools have been told they must be “gay friendly,” as Roback Morse notes. But it will not stop with public schools. Just north of the border in Quebec, the government told a Mennonite school that it must conform to provincial law regarding curriculum—a curriculum that teaches children that homosexuality is a valid lifestyle. How long will it be before the U.S. government goes after private schools?

Even speaking out against homosexuality can get you fired. Crystal Dixon, an associate vice president at the University of Toledo, was fired after writing an opinion piece in the Toledo Free Press in support of traditional marriage . . . Fired—for exercising her First Amendment rights!

Promoters of same-sex “marriage” seem to go out of their way to target Christian businesses and churches. Their goal, it seems, is not the right to “marry,” but to punish anyone who disagrees with them.

Clearly, there is a spiritual battle going on here: Christians are under attack because they are a public witness to the fact that a holy God created us male and female, and we will always put obedience to Him and His laws above obedience to any earthly demand for loyalty.

The coming persecution of Christians is one more reason why we need to get involved with efforts to pass laws at the state and federal level defining marriage as a legal relationship between one man and one woman. We must protect, not only genuine marriage, but also many of the freedoms we now take for granted: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of association, freedom to use private property the way we see fit—all are under threat.

And we must tell our friends and neighbors why gay “marriage” is not just about equality: It is about forcing religious believers to accept the validity of the homosexual lifestyle—or else.

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BILL NUMBER:  A6584A

TITLE OF BILL :
An act to amend the executive law, the civil rights law and the
education law, in relation to prohibiting discrimination based on
gender identity or expression; and to amend the penal law and the
criminal procedure law, in relation to including offenses regarding
gender identity or expression within the list of offenses subject to
treatment as hate crimes

PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF THE BILL :
This bill would prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or
expression, and includes offenses regarding gender identity or
expression under the hate crimes statute.

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NY State Passes Trans Inclusive Non-Disc Act

We New York gays are making all sorts of headway!

Not only do we have last week’s gay marriage push, but now the State Assembly today voted 102-33 to green light the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, which adds sexuality and gender identity to the state’s human rights act. All this action’s almost too much for us to handle!

Some background from Empire State Pride Agenda’s gleeful press release:

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First introduced in 2003, GENDA has a record 74 co-sponsors this year in the Assembly, up from 69 last year. The Pride Agenda, the over 200 organizational members of the GENDA Coalition and the LGBT community have been working closely with Assemblymember Gottfried and other Assembly supporters to build the momentum for passage that resulted in today’s vote.
…
In the Senate, GENDA (S.3753a) is sponsored by Senator Tom Duane and has 17 cosponsors, up from 14 last year. While none of the cosponsors are members of the Republican Majority, the Pride Agenda’s legislative scorecard shows GENDA to have the support of 27 [out of 62] Senators, including three Republicans.

Read the rest of the orgasmic release, after the jump…

Albany, New York, June 3, 2008 – Today the New York State Assembly voted 102-33 to amend the state’s human rights law to include anti-discrimination protections based upon gender identity and expression. The bill (A.6584a), known as the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) bans discrimination against transgender people in housing, employment, credit, public accommodations, and other areas of everyday life.

“The Assembly has solidly demonstrated once again that it is the leader on civil rights and providing equality for our community where it didn’t exist before in New York,” said Empire State Pride Agenda Executive Director Alan Van Capelle. “We thank Assemblymember Richard Gottfried for his sponsorship and steadfast support of this bill. We also thank Speaker Silver and the Assembly Majority, the 74 cosponsors and the 102 Assemblymembers who passed this bill and understand the importance of providing an umbrella of anti-discrimination protection for all New Yorkers.”

First introduced in 2003, GENDA has a record 74 co-sponsors this year in the Assembly, up from 69 last year. The Pride Agenda, the over 200 organizational members of the GENDA Coalition and the LGBT community have been working closely with Assemblymember Gottfried and other Assembly supporters to build the momentum for passage that resulted in today’s vote.

“Transgender New Yorkers are in constant fear that they will lose their jobs, get kicked out of their home, or simply be denied service when they go into a restaurant. It goes without saying that these members of our community should be able to go about the business of living their lives openly and without fear,” said Pride Agenda Executive Director Alan Van Capelle.

Transgender activist Melissa Sklarz of New York City said about today’s vote, “Thank you New York State Assembly for standing up to say ‘no’ to discrimination against transgender New Yorkers. I can think of years of personal struggle in the job market and workplace without any legal protection and am now hopeful that there is a real chance that the next generation of transgender New Yorkers will not face these same difficulties.”

In terms of the Senate, the Pride Agenda’s Van Capelle said, “We now look to the New York State Senate to close this gaping hole in the New York State Human Rights Law. Governor Paterson has already said that he will sign this bill into law once the Senate acts.”

“My message to the Senate Majority is this: It’s now time to do what 78 percent of New York voters believe is the right thing to do and end this discrimination once and for all this year. Thirteen other states already have laws providing protections based upon gender identity and expression, along with 96 cities and counties. We also know that the private sector is far ahead of government with 153 Fortune 500 companies, including 26 based here in New York having policies in place that protect their transgender employees. Clearly, our state is lagging behind.”

In the Senate, GENDA (S.3753a) is sponsored by Senator Tom Duane and has 17 cosponsors, up from 14 last year. While none of the cosponsors are members of the Republican Majority, the Pride Agenda’s legislative scorecard shows GENDA to have the support of 27 Senators, including three Republicans.

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"FETAL VIABILITY" MEANS THE POINT IN PREGNANCY WHEN,  IN  THE  GOOD
   39  FAITH  MEDICAL  JUDGMENT  OF  A  PHYSICIAN, IN ACCORDANCE WITH GENERALLY
   40  ACCEPTED MEDICAL STANDARDS APPLIED TO THE PARTICULAR FACTS OF  THE  CASE
   41  BEFORE  THAT  PHYSICIAN, THERE IS A REASONABLE LIKELIHOOD OF THE FETUS`S
   42 SUSTAINED  SURVIVAL  OUTSIDE  THE  UTERUS  WITHOUT  THE  APPLICATION  OF
   43  EXTRAORDINARY MEDICAL MEASURES.

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Support the Healthy Teens Act

Posted: 06/05/2008

Our young New Yorkers deserve better.

New studies show that 1 in 4 teenage girls has a sexually transmitted infection (STI). In New York, 40,000 teens will become pregnant this year.

New York currently has no designated funding for comprehensive sex education in our schools, although New York’s rates of unintended teen pregnancy and STIs are among the highest in the country. We need to give our teens age-appropriate and accurate sex-ed so that they can make healthy decisions for themselves.

The Healthy Teens Act (S.1342) can make this happen.

If this bill is passed, school districts, BOCES, school-based health centers and community-based organizations would be able to apply for grants to create and implement programs that will give New York students real sex ed.

The New York State Assembly has passed the Healthy Teens Act four years in a row with strong bi-partisan support. It’s time to get our Senate on board. Send a letter to your senator today and urge them to support the Healthy Teens Act.  

Quoted from Kevin March

http://www.prochoiceny.org/getinvolved/alerts/200806051.shtml

(Naral's NY dedicated site)



So, you ask what does the Healthy Teens Act actually have in it?

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Judge dismisses same-sex marriage benefits challenge

By RICK KARLIN, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
Last updated: 5:15 p.m., Tuesday, September 2, 2008

ALBANY -- Gov. David Paterson's order that state agencies recognize same-sex marriages from other states has withstood a challenge in State Supreme Court.
The administrative move, made back in May, stemmed from a case in the Rochester area where a woman sued her employer, Monroe Community College, because it initially refused to grant benefits to her female spouse after they were married in Canada, which recognizes same-sex marriage.

Following Paterson's decision, the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative group that opposes same-sex marriage, joined Republican lawmakers including Sen. Martin Golden, R-Brooklyn, and Assembly Republican Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, in suing the administration to stop its recognition of same-sex marriages.

Their suit, in Bronx State Supreme Court, was dismissed today.

To see the decision go to http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/.