Gay marriages took a place in New York State

NYC Rejects Gay Marriage Applications

NYC Rejects Gay Marriage Applications
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - The fight over gay marriages reached the nation's largest city Thursday as about three dozen same-sex couples asked for licenses and were turned down. One applicant warned, "This isn't going away."

Couples in a New York suburb were also rejected, but across the country in Portland, Ore., a line of at least 100 hopefuls snaked around a building as Multnomah County handed out licenses to gay couples for a second day.

"This isn't a matter of sacred and religious issues. It's a civil issue," said Nelson Jones, 74, who came out to support the Oregon couples and hoped to seek his own license there next week.

It is not clear how long the licenses will be available. Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski has warned the marriages may not be legal and requested a legal opinion from Oregon's attorney general.

New York's attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, said in an opinion Wednesday that his state's laws prohibit same-sex marriages, and New York City's top lawyer said the same about city law. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has also promised to enforce the law.

Still, gay couples began lining up outside the city clerk's office two hours before it opened. First in line were Mara Gottlieb, 33, and Camille Gonzalez, 38, accompanied by Gottlieb's mother and their rabbi.

They, like those who followed, were handed a 50-page rejection letter that included the state and city's legal opinions and offered information about domestic partnership options.

"We're disappointed, but we think it's important for people to come here," said Gottlieb, who wore a tiara-like white band in her hair. "We want the politicians to know that this isn't going away."

About 300 gay and lesbian demonstrators held signs and chanted: "It's about equality!"

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Gay marriage officiants may face jail

Gay marriage officiants may face jail

By SUMATHI REDDY
ALBANY BUREAU

March 15, 2004, 9:48 PM EST


ALBANY -- Two Unitarian ministers were charged Monday with illegally performing 13 same-sex marriages in the upstate village of New Paltz, ensnaring clergy for the first time in the widening debate over marriage for same-sex couples.

Dawn Sangrey and Kay Greenleaf, two Unitarian Universalist ministers, were charged with misdemeanors for violating the state's domestic relations law by solemnizing 13 marriages without a license on March 6. They could face up to a year in jail for the same actions as New Paltz Mayor Jason West, who brought the national furor over same-sex marriage to New York by performing 25 marriages for same-sex couples last month before a judge ordered him judge to stop.

Robert Gottlieb, a Suffolk County attorney representing the ministers, said Greenleaf, 64, of Poughkeepsie, and Sangrey, 62, of Bedford Hills, will plead not guilty in New Paltz Town Court Monday.

"The decision to prosecute members of the clergy is terribly misguided and an abuse of our criminal justice system," Gottlieb said.

Legal experts and human rights advocates said that the charges brought by Ulster County prosecutors are likely the first levied against clergy who commonly conduct same-sex marriage ceremonies and challenge the bedrock principle of the separation of church and state.

Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams said that, although he supports the rights of clergy to perform religious marriages, Greenleaf and Sangrey went beyond that by officiating at civil ceremonies. The ministers issued affidavits of marriage to the 13 couples.

The two women, as well as a third, Marion Visel, of Hamden, Conn., could face additional charges for presiding over 25 same-sex marriages in New Paltz on Saturday.

And more gay marriages are expected in New Paltz again this weekend, said Charles Clement, a spokesman for the New Paltz Equality Initiative, which has taken charge of the burgeoning movement. "We're going to move forward with four ministers and 25 couples," said Clement, 44.

The clergy stepped in after West was ordered by a state judge to temporarily stop performing the ceremonies in response to a civil suit. Last week, the 26-year-old Green Party mayor met with state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who has advised state officials not to perform same-sex marriages without licenses until the courts rule on the matter.

Visel said she will continue to perform the marriages, knowing that she will likely be charged next. "I think that, despite the consequences, we feel that this really is an issue of justice," said Visel, a minister at the Unitarian Church in Westport, Conn.

Stephen Clark, an associate professor at Albany Law School, said although the state's domestic relations law is written broadly enough to potentially apply to clergy, prosecuting them could be problematic because of the delicate nature of the separation of church and state.

Couples who were married by the ministers said they were saddened to hear of the charges, but not surprised.

"We expected it," said Robee VanNorman, 45, of High Falls, who with her partner was the third couple to be married on March 6. "It's a double-edged sword. Certainly I'm dismayed that anybody has to be charged, but I think that in order for this to move through the courts, this has to be done."

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So they are going to send ppl to the jail who married the same-sex couple? oh pls. :gives: abt it... sigh
 
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