TEN YEARS AGO, MASSACHUSETTS INTRODUCED US TO GAY MARRIAGE

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19. No

New Paltz marriages[edit]

On February 27, 2004, New Paltz Mayor Jason West married 25 same-sex couples before a cheering crowd in front of the New Paltz Village Hall. Not long thereafter, the Ulster County District Attorney charged West with nineteen misdemeanors in connection with these marriages.[6] A court later dismissed the charges against West, a ruling which the state appealed. Ulster County Court Judge J. Michael Bruhn ruled in favor of the state, reinstating the charges against West, arguing that this criminal case did not concern whether the state constitution mandates same-sex marriage, but rather whether West violated his oath of office in performing illegal marriages. The May 2005 charges against West were reinstated; these were dropped by the prosecutor on July 12. After Liberty Counsel filed a civil lawsuit challenging the validity of the marriages, a state court judge issued a permanent injunction barring West from solemnizing same-sex marriages.[7][8]


On February 27, 2004, Nyack, New York, mayor John Shields announced that he would recognize the New Paltz marriages and on March 1, 2004, Ithaca mayor Carolyn K. Peterson declared that she would recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions.[9]

Two days later, then-Attorney General of New York Eliot Spitzer, a supporter of same-sex marriage, issued an "informal opinion" stating that municipal clerks should not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples since the New York State Legislature had not intended for the Domestic Relations Law to cover same-sex couples.[10]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_New_York