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Civil Disobedience by mayors spreads eastward.
Today's NY Times:
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February 27, 2004
Gay Marriage Debate Shifts to Small New York Township
By CHRISTINE HAUSER
Barry Nevins and his partner have been together as a couple for more than four years, and even exchanged rings and vows on a Caribbean cruise trip.
But today, angered by President Bush's call this week for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages, they hope to take their relationship one step further in New Paltz, N.Y., where the mayor, Jason West, has said he will perform marriages for up to a dozen same-sex couples today.
After making headlines in San Francisco and Massachusetts, the national debate over gay marriage migrated today to a smaller stage, the Hudson Valley community of New Paltz north of New York City, after Mr. West said that several gay couples would be married.
An official in the town clerk's office said that by law marriage licenses could not be given out to same-sex couples, and therefore the legal basis for the marriages performed today was in question.
But Mr. West is expected to perform ceremonies for gay couples that solemnize a marriage, the first such ceremonies in New York State, where same-sex couples have historically been refused marriage licenses.
Mr. Nevins, a 42-year-old hospital administrator, said he had no idea whether his marriage to his partner, whom he declined to name, would be legally recognized any more than their Caribbean "marriage" three years ago.
But like many of the gay couples who are trying to get marriage licenses, that is not the whole point.
"It is a statement to say that no one has the right to tell me who I can marry," Mr. Nevins said in a telephone interview from the town clerk's office in New Paltz, where he was unable to get a license but instead was given directions to the mayor's office.
Mr. West, who is 26 and was elected last year on the Green Party ticket, has said that marriages for gay couples were a matter of equal rights.
He told CNN today that for a marriage to be legal in New York state it only has to be "properly solemnized by someone with authority to do so."
"As mayor I am fully able to do that and at noon today I start solemnizing marriages regardless of gender," Mr. West said.
On Tuesday, President Bush, citing San Francisco's decision to issue marriage licenses to gay couples despite state laws that appear to be to the contrary, said that the union of a man and woman is the most enduring human institution. He said he supported an amendment that would counteract "activist judges" who have issued rulings in favor of gay marriage.
More than 3,300 same-sex couples have gotten married in San Francisco since Feb. 12, and California courts are now considering legal challenges both to the marriages and the laws that forbid them.
Rosie O'Donnell, the comedian who has become a prominent advocate for gay rights since she announced she was a lesbian in 2002, married her partner of six years in San Francisco on Thursday, an act that she said was "inspired" by President Bush's remarks.
Today, television trucks converged on New Paltz, located not far from the Hudson river and the Shawangunk Mountains, a ridge of rugged and rocky cliffs popular with rock climbers.
"This would have to be the largest coverage of New Paltz since I joined the department 28 years ago," said the township's police chief, Raymond K. Zappone.
Mr. Nevins said he and his partner drove two hours to reach the mayor's office.
"Gay and lesbian people have been persecuted and oppressed," he said. "If Rosie O'Donnell can go and get married, I think we can too."
Thomas Crampton contributed reporting from New Paltz to this article
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