Posted on 09/23/2003 6:09:18 AM PDT by areafiftyone
The New York State Democratic Party’s governing body adopted a formal stance in favor of gay marriage yesterday, the strongest possible posture in a bitter national battle over the rights of gays and lesbians.
The State Democratic Committee, meeting in Buffalo yesterday, voted unanimously to endorse a pending bill in the Legislature that would write same-sex marriages into the state’s existing marriage law.
It is a more sweeping change than that adopted byVermont, which set up a separate-but-equal institution called a “civil union.”
“Today is a great day for New York gays and lesbians. We have gotten one step closer to full equality under the law, including civil marriage,” said Alan Van Capelle, executive director of Empire State Pride Agenda, the state’s main gay lobbying group. “It ratchets up the level of debate on this issue.”
New York’s Democratic Party is the third in the nation, after Washington’s and California’s, to adopt such a strong resolution, and the first since the U.S. Supreme Court energized the marriage debate by striking down sodomy laws in a sweeping decision this summer. A spokeswoman for the state Republican Party didn’t return a call seeking comment on the Democrats’ move.
The resolution appears to be a statement that the Democrat-dominated Assembly would block “defense of marriage ” legislation, keeping New York one of just 13 states in the nation without it.
The committee “commits to working to defeat any such mean-spirited, divisive measure under consideration in the State of New York to marginalize lesbian and gay couples and families and limit their access to civil marriage and the rights and responsibilities that come with it” and “opposes any attempt to bar lesbian and gay couples from civil marriage, including constitutional amendments and federal, state, or local legislation,” the resolution says.
The party chairman, Herman “Denny”Farrell, said the party is “taking a leadership role in calling for passage of the existing legislation,” which is sponsored by Manhattan legislators Richard Gottfried in the Assembly and Thomas Duane in the Senate.
Mr. Farrell was careful to note that the legislation applies only to civil marriage.
“We’re not telling any of the churches or the synagogues or the mosques that they must perform these marriages,” he said.
The move comes amid uncertainty in Washington over the future of marriage. President Bush is on the record opposing same-sex marriage, but has also expressed caution about a push for an amendment to the American constitution that would outlaw gay marriage.
Advocates of same-sex marriage consider the amendment a real threat, particularly given that even Democrats from liberal states, including Senator Schumer, voted 1996 for a federal Defense of Marriage Act.
The fight over a constitutional amendment might come down to state legislatures, of which two-thirds, or 38, would have to approve it. Most marriage laws are also on the books at the state level.
“Marriage is a creature of state government,” said the communications director of the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay group, David Smith. “For the Democratic Party of New York to puts its name behind giving gay couples the right to civil marriage is a very profound and important statement.”
State Marriage Laws were created to protect children.
I assume that the stance involves grabbing one's ankles.
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