First it was the ConCon in MA. Then Mayor Newsome started to grant licenses to same-sex couples. Then Mayor Daley said he'd be open to that. Then a county clerk in New Mexico started granting marriages--only to stop after being told to by the AG. Then Bush came out in support of FMA. Then Kerry tossed his support toward amending the MA Constitution.
And now, the Mayor of New Palz, NY is going to start marrying same-sex couples:
The 26-year-old mayor of this Hudson Valley village says he will begin performing gay marriages Friday, calling it "my moral obligation."
Mayor Jason West, who won office last year on the Green Party line, said Friday he intends to marry up to a dozen same-gender couples at a private bed and breakfast. The move could make this college village 75 miles north of New York City another flash point in national debate over gay marriage.
The State is less than pleased. However, it's not altogether clear how this will play out--New York's marriage laws are gender neutral. Again, from the article:
The NYS Health Department said Thursday that New York's domestic relations law does not allow the issuance of marriage licenses to same sex couples and that New York courts have recognized only marriages between men and women as valid.
"A municipal clerk who issues a marriage license outside these guidelines, and any person who solemnizes such a marriage, would be violating state law and subject to the penalties in law," the department said in a statement.
West said Friday he recommends Health Department officials reread state domestic relations law, which is gender-neutral, and the constitution which requires equal protection under law and which he is obligated to uphold.
"For a marriage to be legal in this state all that's required is for it to be properly solemnized by someone with authority to do so," West told CNN in an interview. "I'm fully able to do that. At noon today I start solemnizing marriages regardless of gender."
West said he perform up to 12 marriages Friday and post a form on the village Web site www.villageofnewpaltz.org and start a waiting list for others.