Another New York court says out-of-state marriages are legal

This week another state court ruled that New York must respect out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples. While the Martinez decision out of Rochester, its appeal and the protest rallies that resulted from the appeal made news around the country, this past Wednesday’s lower court decision on Lewis v. Department of Civil Service went largely unnoticed.

Martinez and Lewis aren’t the only cases addressing out-of-state marriages. There are actually five marriage recognition cases moving through New York’s court system right now. The appellate level 5-0 Martinez ruling is the binding decision at the moment as it is the only one that has moved through both a lower level and a mid-level court.

Lambda Legal recently put out an excellent overview of all five cases, which was up-to-date until this Wednesday’s lower level court decision on Lewis. Go here to read this summary.

While we never try to predict what a court will say before it actually says it, there have been a string of good decisions in recent months on almost all of these cases and the Governor, the Attorney General, the Comptroller and many others have stated their agreement with these decisions. So things are looking good on the question of how New York will treat legal marriages of same-sex couples performed in places like Canada and Massachusetts.

However, the endgame on all of this is being able to get married right here in New York State and this means getting the State Senate to do what the Assembly has done -- pass marriage equality legislation.

Morning Sweep

Gay City News writes about the poll we put out this week showing overwhelming support across New York for a law ending legal discrimination against transgender people and gets rather candid reactions from the bill’s prime sponsor, Assemblymember Richard Gottfried, and openly lesbian Assemblymember Deborah Glick. A must read.

After two weeks of controversy over whether he had a history of denigrating gays, woman and minorities, Andres Garcia withdraws his name from any further consideration for Buffalo’s top human rights post.

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle’s “Friday Faceoff” series has Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks defending her appeal of the appellate court’s 5-0 Martinez decision and Bess Watts, President of the Rochester Finger Lakes Chapter of Pride at Work, talking about why LGBT county employees should have the same benefits for their families that other families are given.

The owner of a new restaurant and bar in Binghamton, who married his longtime partner Binghamton Councilman Sean Massey in Canada, talks about the value of diversity in his business and in the Greater Binghamton area.

Morning Sweep

The New York Times looks at two court cases in New York State dealing with same-sex marriage and divorce.

Buffalo's Commission on Citizen's Rights and Community Relations is reconsidering its nominee to lead the city's human rights efforts amidst allegations that he "has denigrated gays, women and minorities" in the past. Outcome Buffalo disagrees.

The New York City Council has introduced (and Mayor Bloomberg is supporting) a Domestic Violence Civil Protection Act, which would give domestic partners access to family court in domestic violence cases. Currently, only married couples have access to Family Court in New York City.

Openly gay Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon talks about her relationship and her family while promoting her upcoming film in OK! Magazine (via Daily News).

A columnist for the Washington Post writes about the Maryland slate legislature's dilemma in passing legislation to grant legal recognition for same-sex couples and it all comes down to names.

Poll: New Yorkers overwhelmingly support GENDA

We released a poll today (conducted by Global Strategy Group) that finds that 78 percent of registered New York voters support passing a bill that protects transgender people from discrimination in employment, housing, education and other areas of everyday life.

This is important for several reasons. First, in the five years that the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) has been around, legislators have never brought it to a floor vote in either chamber of the New York State Legislature. The most plausible reason for this is that lawmakers believe the issue to be controversial among their constituents—that, by acting to end discrimination against a marginalized group of people, they would somehow come under fire from the people who elect them to office.

This poll overwhelmingly dismisses that notion in a couple of ways. The first is the most direct: the poll states that for 88 percent of New York voters it either makes no difference in their vote or makes it more likely that they would vote for a state senator or assemblymember who voted to pass GENDA. Only nine percent said that they would actually be less likely to vote for their assemblymember/senator if that person voted to pass GENDA.

To further reinforce this, the poll found that 71 percent believed that there was already a law in place that outlawed this type of discrimination. This is a non-issue for voters and the state legislature should seriously take note of this.

Second, the political establishment in Albany often believes that a bill like GENDA has a natural base of support among voters of one party - the Democrats - more than the other - the Republicans. This means GENDA would be a one-house bill because, while Democrats may support it, the Republican-controlled Senate would not act on a bill that wouldn’t intuitively be popular with its core constituency.

This poll turns that assumption on its head. While the findings confirm that the vast majority of Democrats do support the passage of GENDA (77 percent), it also found that a clear majority of New York Republicans also favor outlawing discrimination against trans people (67 percent), further reinforcing the notion that New York Republicans are more libertarian than socially conservative and often have a “live and let live” mindset towards their fellow citizens. There is no reason, therefore, that GENDA should not be taken up and passed in both houses during this legislative session. We already know that Gov. Spitzer would sign the bill into law if it reaches his desk.

And finally, party leadership from both sides of the aisle may think that acting on this bill during an election year might do damage to some of their marginal members in parts of the state that are traditionally more conservative than New York City. Again, the findings of this poll prove that notion to be false. Support in New York City certainly is strong (80 percent), but the strongest support came from the NYC suburbs, where 82 percent of likely voters believe that discrimination based on gender expression and identity should be outlawed. Additionally—and perhaps most significantly—74 percent of upstate voters support passing GENDA.

The time for delay is over. New York lags behind the 13 states that have already passed a bill like GENDA--states like New Jersey, Iowa, Illinois and Colorado--and New York is also behind the curve when compared to the dozens of Fortune 500 firms that have enacted policies that forbid trans discrimination—including New York-based companies like Kodak in Western New York, PepsiCo in the Hudson Valley, TimeWarner and American Express downstate and Corning in the Southern Tier.

It’s time to do what the vast majority of New Yorkers believe is the right thing to do: pass GENDA in 2008.

Read the Pride Agenda press release here

See where members of the New York State Legislature stand on GENDA here

See a PDF of the poll here

Morning Sweep

The Washington Post's Jose Vargas hits the streets in the Lone Star State and discovers that gays in Texas love Hillary.

California's Supreme Court heard arguments in the case questioning the legality of banning same-sex marriage. Justices questioned both sides on the significance of the word marriage and why this was "the moment" for marriage equality. Good As You has audio clips of the arguments.

Jews from multiple denominations in California have organized to fight against a ballot proposal that could ban same-sex marriage in that state.

Washington's state legislature passed a bill yesterday that provides additional rights and responsibilities to domestic partners.

An attempt by Republican members of the Iowa House to vote on a bill that would ban same-sex marriages failed yesterday.

Fans of "As the World Turns" want to see more intimacy between the show's teenage gay couple.

Morning Sweep

Gay residents of St. Lawrence County in upstate New York voiced their anger at a County Legislature meeting last night because of the County's decision to remove posters advertising an upcoming LGBT film festival.

In an editorial, the Buffalo News advises caution in the current controversy over the selection of the city's Human Rights Commissioner, saying that if the nominee has even the slightest history of bigotry, he should be immediately dismissed as a candidate. The paper also states that judgement should be based on hard facts, not allegations.

The Advocate's Kerry Eleveld provides the most comprehensive view of how LGBT voters are having an impact on today's primary elections in Texas and Ohio.

Empty Closet Editor Susan Jordan editorializes about the obvious bigotry in Monroe County Executive Maggie Brook's decision to appeal a unanimous appellate court decision to grant full marriage equality to same-sex couples who were legally wed out of state.

California's Supreme Court will hear arguments on the question of same-sex marriage today and Good As You provides info on how you can listen live to the proceedings.

Nadine Smith, Exec. Director of Equality Florida, posts on the Daily Voice about the recent killing of a transgender 17-year old in Broward County (Ft. Lauderdale).

Homophobia in professional soccer will be addressed during the massively popular Euro 2008 championship tournament.

Paris' openly gay and highly popular mayor might be the Socialist Party's candidate in France's next presidential election (which isn't for a few years anyway).

Morning Sweep

California's Supreme Court will hear arguments tomorrow in a case that will decide the legality of the state's current ban on same-sex marriage.

An all-inclusive St. Patrick's Day Parade took place in Queens yesterday, bringing out hundreds of people. The parade was marshaled by NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn and former Daily News Editor in Chief Pete Hamill.

Openly gay conservative/political pundit Andrew Sullivan heaped effusive praise upon Barack Obama for his positions on LGBT issues.

Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton support equal immigration rights for same-sex couples.

The New York Times ran an article about the liberal former bishop who headed St. John the Divine Episcopal Church and led a secret gay life. The Church's current head, Rev. James Kowalski, is a dedicated member of the Pride Agenda's Pride in the Pulpit program.

A student columnist writes in the Columbia Spectator a review of a recent conference for LGBT Jews hosted by Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary.

A recent poll shows that Iowans do not support same-sex marriage but do support civil unions.

Illinois' state legislature will be looking at a bill that would legalize civil unions for same-sex couples, much like the laws the New Jersey, Vermont and Connecticut currently have.

The Pope will likely speak against gay marriage when he comes to New York in mid-April.