This post is a little belated, because it has been at least a few weeks since the last time I paid close attention to the same-sex marriage issue here in New York. But it appears that New York State’s governor Eliot Spitzer has indeed fulfilled his promise to draft and propose a same-sex marriage bill. Here are some relevant news stories:
- “Spitzer Files Gay Marriage Bill,” April 27, 2007 – 10:00 am ET, 365Gay.com
- “Spitzer unveils gay marriage bill; Senate leader balks,” by Marc Humbert, Associated Press, April 27, 2007, 3:08 PM EDT, New York Newsday
- “Spitzer Offers Gay Marriage Bill Today” by Paul Schindler, Friday, April 27, 2007, Gay City News
- “New York governor proposes legalizing gay marriage,” By Holly McKenna, April 27, 2007, Reuters, Boston Globe
Good for him. More recently the governer sent out a memo reaffirming his support for same-sex marriage:
- “Gay Rites Will Help Families, Spitzer Says: New Memo Discloses Governor’s Case,” by Jacob Gershman, May 8, 2007, New York Sun
- “N.Y. Governor Says Gay Marriage Protects Families,” by Kilian Melloy, Tuesday May 8, 2007, EDGE Boston
The following commentary claims that Spitzer could more easily just issue an executive order legalizing same-sex marriage, without needing to go through the legislature:
- “Governor Eliot Spitzer’s Same-Sex Marriage Hoax’” by Kimberly Wilder & Ian Wilder, OpEdNews.com
But, in 2006, there was a court decision that the issue of same-sex marriage had to be decided by the legislature.
In any case, Spitzer has issued an executive order requiring the state insurance department to recognize same-sex marriages from out-of-state jurisdictions:
- “Same-Sex Spouse ‘Open Enrollment’,” by Andy Humm, 05/10/2007, Gay City News
- “NY Gay Couples Married In Mass. Have Weddings Validated,” May 16, 2007 – 11:00 am ET, 365Gay.com
Here’s an article about a coalition of local conservative groups opposing the same-sex marriage bill:
- “New York Coalition Opposes Same-Sex Marriage Bill: New Yorkers resisting governor’s proposed bill,” May 14, 2007, EURweb.com
But the member groups in that coalition are not named in the above article. I guess I’ll have to try to dig up that info later.
Below is a summary of the summary of the situation in various states across the U.S.A.:
- “Civil Unions & Same-Sex Marriage State By State,” May 10, 2007 1:27 pm US/Central, CBS2Chicagolcom
