I live 45 minutes from New Paltz. The road on my corner takes me to SUNY New Paltz without making a turn. It’s a lovely little town. Yes, the Mayor IS already in major hot water with the town establishment. Yes, he IS using national publicity to garner strength to fight that battle.
It doesn’t matter. He is taking a stand that’s dicey in the eyes of Elliot Spitzer- a man not to be trifled with in any quarter. NY State Law is fairly ambiguous- the wording does allow for same- sex marriage, as it does NOT specify gender.
Our dear friends the lesbian couple were over tonight for food, drink and talk. They didn’t say they were driving up to get hitched, but Her birthday is next weekend, and I think they may elope. More power to 'em.
My suspicion is that Margaret Atwood is sitting on the other side of the US-Canadian border, wringing her hands, gasping in terror and screaming, " You IDIOTS, it was just a SCIENCE FICTION STORY !!! You weren’t meant to really DO IT !!! ".
The nauseating march of Gilead is closer than ever in the United States of America. I applaud the Mayors of San Francisco, New Paltz and any other municipality that is forcing this issue. It needs to be clarified, and IMHO it needs to be clarified and then left alone. Adults get married. Gender is not the rule of law, dedication to your spouse should be the only rule of law. My two cents.
" . . . think of the changes it brings;
For the short time it takes, what a difference it makes
In the ways of the people and things.
Oh! what a fine bunch of rubens,
Oh! what a jay atmosphere;
They have whiskers like hay, and imagine New Paltz only forty-five minutes from here!"
Hooray, Paltz, NY, and cheers to the people there willing to take up the gage and stand up for what they think is right.
What government has the right to tell two people they have no right to commit themselves to each other, in every way, legally included, and still call itself a “free country” ?
A government busily creating new rules, of course. Or a government some of whose members (but even moreso, some of whose financially-contributing non-governmental investors) believe in protecting the sanctity of marriage by prohibiting gay marriage … but doing nothing about divorce, for example. If marriage is so sacred, why is anyone able to both enter into and exit out of it?[/GD]
Restraint or mere realism. The California courts keep slapping down injunction requests on the “no immediate, irreparable harm” grounds, so Spitzer’s probably playing the odds and biding his time to avoid an immediate smack down.
But in the same article, NY AG Elliot Spitzer has ordered a review of the state constitution to determine if, as West and others have asserted, SSM are already legal.
Apparently, New York law is not clear on the issue of same-sex marriage. It has never been explicitly approved or prohibited. Most states (including California) have in recent years passed laws explicitly prohibiting same sex marriages; but New York has not. There is also no reference to “a man and a woman” in the existing NY marriage laws. However, opponents of same sex marriage have noted there are references in NY law to “a bride and a groom” and “a husband and a wife” and argue these equate with two genders.
Spitzer’s office issued an opinion earlier this week stating his belief that SSM is prohibited by the domestic code but that the code itself is vulnerable to constitutional challenge.
Bowing to the hysteria of the anti-family forces, a New York judge has issued a restraining order against Mayor West, barring him from performing any more weddings for 30 days.
More power to 'em.