New York denies same-sex marriage licences
The city’s top lawyer has ruled that local law prohibits gay marriage, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg vowed to enforce the law. New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer also said that gay weddings were illegal, but one small-town mayor has conducted gay marriages and another plans to try to obtain licence.
Mara Gottlieb, aged 33, and Camille Gonzalez, aged 38, were first in line at the New York City clerk’s office. “We’re disappointed, but we think it’s important for people to come here,” Ms Gottlieb said. “We want the politicians to know that this isn’t going away.” Mr Spitzer’s legal opinion said current state law prohibits same-sex weddings, but the attorney general said he would leave it to the courts to decide if the law is constitutional.
Both sides of the issue had been waiting on Mr Spitzer’s opinion since last Friday, when the mayor of New Paltz, a small college town 75 miles north of New York City, married 25 same-sex couples.
Village mayor Jason West now faces 19 criminal counts and could face jail time. West said he will conduct another 10 to 20 marriages this weekend, but a village official said he intends to seek a temporary restraining order to stop West from marrying same-sex couples.
Officials in liberal sections of the United States elsewhere vowed to continue issuing licences for same-sex couples in defiance of critics and long-accepted laws.
Oregon governor Ted Kulongoski questioned the legality of Multnomah County issuing marriage licences to same-sex couples, saying the state’s 1863 marriage statute suggested marriage is a union between one man and one woman.
However, the governor’s words did little to deter the long line of gay couples snaking their way around a Multnomah County building, as they waited to pick up marriage licences.
Mayors and county officials in four states have allowed gay marriages, including San Francisco.
