New York could set the course for future of gay marriage

By Maureen Fan
Knight Ridder Newspapers

	Bloomberg
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NEW YORK — For weeks, as couple after couple exchanged vows in San Francisco, the nation's largest city uttered barely a word on the national debate over same-sex marriage.

But now that New York — where the gay-rights movement began — has jumped into the fray, both the stakes and the spotlight are growing. The gay-marriage effort is no longer a West Coast phenomenon. A win for same-sex marriage in New York could open the door wider for other jurisdictions to follow.

Couples have been lining up at the city clerk's office, where officials have turned down their requests for marriage licenses. But Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, while defending the city's decision, welcomed a clarification of the state's marriage laws and promised to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.

And on Friday, after their request for a marriage license was rejected, Daniel Hernandez, 46, and Nevin Cohen, 42, became the first same-sex couple to sue the city for allegedly violating the state constitution's guarantee of equality for all New Yorkers.

New York has the largest number of same-sex households of any city in the country, according to the 2000 census. It also was home to the 1969 Stonewall riots, when patrons of a gay bar in Greenwich Village fought off a police raid and touched off the gay-rights movement.

But the city has complex politics. The predominantly Democratic city has a liberal Republican mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

Bloomberg, who infuriated the gay community last week when he defended the city's decision, said yesterday that same-sex couples deserve the same rights in civil unions that straight couples enjoy in marriage, but that he will continue to enforce the state's ban on gay marriage.

"Personally, I've always thought that civil unions should have exactly the same rights as marriage," Bloomberg told WPIX-TV. "I don't think you should discriminate against anybody."

Citing references to "bride and groom" and "husband and wife" in the state's Domestic Relations Law, lawyers argue that the intent is to issue licenses only for opposite-sex couples.

But there's reason to think New York is open to change.
 
Spitzer said he favors same-sex marriage and noted that the state's marriage laws raise important constitutional questions that must be decided by the courts. His promise to recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere also leads some experts to believe change is on the horizon.

Bloomberg's comments yesterday were reported by The Associated Press.

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