Same-Sex Marriage in NY State

Crowds on both coasts celebrated Gay Pride this weekend with parades, parties and irreverent reverie, the gay marriage and gay rights debates of the United States continued to enforce ignorance and intolerance behind the scenes. In fact, while gay pride celebrations took over the streets of San Francisco and New York city, both states continue to ban same sex marriage.

Here is the state of same-sex marriage in the United States: Currently, same sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa, with Vermont starting in September. Unless the citizens of Maine veto it, same-sex marriages will begin in the middle of September. New Hampshire is set to begin same-sex marriages in 2010.

The other forty-two U.S. states ban gay marriage, 29 of them through constitutional amendments. California allowed same-sex marriage between June 16, 2008 and November 4, 2008 before passing Proposition 8 and again banning marriage. The 18,000 same-sex marriages that were performed between those dates are still recognized- a strange anomaly similar to New York and D.C., who recognize same-sex marriages from other states but do not allow them inside their borders. Tolerant?

Back to New York City, gay pride and the state of the state’s legal situation. There is a power struggle in the state Senate that is paralyzing that the bill to legalize gay marriage currently on the floor. The bill passed the NY State Assembly in May but is stalled out in the senate.

New York’s Greenwich Village is the home of the Stonewall riots, often cited as the beginning of the gay rights movement in the U.S.

"I had hoped today's march would have been a bit of a wedding march. It's not. We are disappointed. ... But I know there have been other times our community has been disappointed and you need to keep fighting,” said Christine Quinn, gay speaker of the NYC Council.

Basically there is a major power struggle going on involving senators switching sides, leadership votes and a deadlock so severe that the legislative session has been extended to get something done. New York Governor David Paterson supports bringing the bill to a vote in the senate during the present legislative session.

Gay Rights organizations, while optimistic that same-sex marriage will eventually be legal in the state, are wary of the same-sex bill ending up as a center-point for what is really a leadership and politically-charged debate.

What is already a divisive issue politically appears to be carrying more than its share of baggage. Perhaps the energy of Gay Pride celebrations will have some effect on the senate, bringing them to realize the importance of the vote that they are delaying because of petty partisan, senatorial bickering and the refusal to actually finish their voting on time.

Equal rights is far too important an issue to languish under argument and indecision. It is seldom that there are parades celebrating things that are illegal, and somehow even more seldom that there are parties when a new bill does pass the state legislature- when the New York senate gets around to passing that bill, there will be another parade, I’m sure, one celebrating equal rights that have long been denied.