Same-sex marriages gradually gain legal ground
“There’s a sense people have — a sense of inevitability — and a tremendous sense of frustration because of the history of the gay rights fight in Maine,” said Michael Heath, executive director of the Maine Family Policy Council.
Those rights are expanding as legally married gay couples relocate to states that don’t allow same-sex marriage, forcing courts, legislatures and employers to deal with the resulting issues of custody, divorce, inheritance and end-of-life decisions.
The adoption ruling in Maine had the effect of granting parental rights to same-sex couples. By the time the Legislature adjourns for the summer, experts expect Maine to become the fifth state to legalize same-sex marriage — 11 years after voters banned it.
In California, federal judges have twice overruled decisions by the federal government to deny healthcare coverage to gay employees’ legal spouses, teeing up a constitutional challenge to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which forbids federal benefits for same-sex couples.
Same-sex marriage is legal in Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and Massachusetts, which began the trend five years ago. (Iowa issued its first marriage licenses April 27, a few weeks after its Supreme Court gave approval; weddings in Vermont will begin in September.) Within a year, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York will probably follow suit, say sexual orientation scholars at the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute; New Hampshire’s Senate approved a same-sex marriage bill Wednesday.
And as more same-sex couples wed in places where it is legal, the administrative fallout in other states is expected to keep expanding.
“The courts are going to have to wrestle with these issues as more and more states make it possible for people to marry,” said Toni Broaddus, executive director of the San Francisco-based Equality Federation. “People don’t stay in the same state for their whole lives anymore, so the courts in states without marriage equality are going to have to address these issues.”
The recent moves in New England and the heartland to legalize gay marriage appeared to reinvigorate campaigns for passage of same-sex marriage bills in Maine, Maryland and Hawaii. Rights advocates predict the tide will eventually sweep even into some of the 30-plus states that have passed laws or constitutional amendments defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
“A body of law is emerging because it has no choice. Cases have been filed and they have to be decided one way or another,” said Joseph Milizio, a Long Island lawyer specializing in gay and lesbian representation.
The legal developments allow people to become comfortable with “the fact that gay marriage is going to be recognized in many different aspects, even in states that don’t allow it,” said Milizio, whose firm recently secured the first dissolution of a same-sex marriage in New York.
In the workplace, proponents of extending spousal rights such as healthcare benefits and life insurance to same-sex couples have succeeded by challenging employment practices that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. Seven states, including California, now guarantee full equality to same-sex couples — another incremental advance that is lamented by opponents.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/same-sex-marr…
Recognition of Out- of- State Marriages for Same-Sex Couples in Lambda Legal’s Case
“Once an out-of-state same-sex marriage is recognized in New York,…each of its parties would be ‘a party to a marriage,’ and, thus, a ‘legal spouse’ who would be entitled to the benefits, rights and obligations of that status,” the three-judge majority opinion held. The other two panel judges filed a concurring opinion.
“Today the Appellate Court confirmed that New York’s state government follows the law by respecting out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples,” said Susan Sommer, Senior Counsel at Lambda Legal. “The Court has upheld important spousal health coverage for government employees in the process.”
In May 2007, DCS issued a memo recognizing, as spouses, same-sex couples married in other states or jurisdictions for purposes of extending spousal health insurance coverage to public employees in participating government insurance plans. The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), on behalf of four New York taxpayer plaintiffs, challenged DCS’s authority to respect valid out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples and to treat those couples fairly in administering state benefits. In March of 2008, the Supreme Court, Albany County, issued a decision that the DCS was following the law in applying New York’s marriage recognition rule to these marriages. ADF opposed the decision in an appeal filed in 2008.
Lambda Legal argued before the court in October 2008 on behalf of Defendant-Intervenors-Respondents Peri Rainbow and Tamela Sloan, long-time public employees who are raising a special needs child adopted from foster care. The couple depends on the government protections that come from respect for their marriage, and today’s decision validated the lower court ruling that marriages such as theirs are lawfully respected in New York state.
Today’s decision is consistent with other marriage recognition victories in New York courts, as well as Governor Paterson’s May 2008 directive instructing all state agencies to respect out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples. In September 2008, the New York Supreme Court (Bronx trial court) dismissed a lawsuit against Governor Paterson challenging this directive and again granted Lambda Legal’s motion to intervene in the case on behalf of Rainbow and Sloan.
In February 2008, in Martinez v. County of Monroe, the Appellate Division, Fourth Department in Rochester, also upheld application of the marriage recognition rule to valid out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples. The decision, issued in response to a challenge brought by the NYCLU on behalf of a lesbian couple, is consistent with longstanding marriage recognition in New York.
In early 2009, Lambda Legal applauded a similar decision from the New York Appellate Division, Second Department affirming dismissal of a case brought by the ADF. The court confirmed that Westchester County Executive Spano lawfully recognized out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples, ruling as well in favor of Westchester County couple Michael Sabatino and Robert Voorheis, who had married in Canada and were permitted to intervene as defendants in the case with Lambda Legal as counsel.
Susan Sommer, Senior Counsel, is handling the case for Lambda Legal. She is joined by co-counsel
Kramer Levin Naftails & Frankel LLP.
The case is Lewis v. New York State Department of Civil Service, et al.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/01/recognition-o…
