Although New York’s legislative session has long since ended, the push for same-sex marriage continues.
New York City’s powerful council approved a measure on Wednesday, by a vote of 47-1, to require the City Clerk’s office to provide same-sex New York couples seeking domestic partnerships about nearby states where same-sex marriage is legally recognized. To date, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont recognize same-sex marriage.
New York Governor David Paterson had issued an executive order in 2009, requiring the state to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said, “Our vote today sends another message to the New York State Senate that we in the City of New York have gone as far as we can go.”
The state Senate has narrowly defeated several attempts to pass same-sex marriage.
Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, said the council should not be encouraging same-sex couples to come to places like his state to get married.
“You have some rogues on the City Council who are promoting their personal agenda, despite what the New York Supreme Court said regarding the definition of marriage as well as the Legislature,” Mineau said. “It puts Massachusetts in a situation of promoting a radical social agenda to the other 49 states –something that we believe is fundamentally wrong –and something certainly the Founding Fathers would have never sanctioned.”
The Rev. Jason McGuire, executive director of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedom, sees the council’s action as one of sheer desperation.
“It’s time that the rest of New Yorkers send a message November 2nd that we’ve taken about as much as we’re going to take as well,” McGuire said. “In state Senate races, state assembly races and even at the federal races, we are seeing time and again that the social values, whether it be same-sex marriage or pro-life values, are percolating to the top. Social values do matter.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
See the City Council’s legislation promoting same-sex marriage.
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