Gay New Yorkers Head to Greenwich for Weddings
GREENWICH, Conn. — They wanted a New York wedding. “Our lives are here; our friends are here,” said Janis Castaldi, 56, who lives in Westchester County with Lizz Endrich, the woman she married on May 21.
But New York has not approved same-sex marriage. “It got to the point where it doesn’t look 100 percent good right now. When you have Greenwich, Conn., 20 minutes away, I said, ‘Why are we waiting?’ ”
And so another couple from outside Connecticut made what is becoming a familiar pilgrimage to this border town of wealth and privilege, the first municipality over the state line by Interstate 95 or Metro-North.
From Nov. 12, 2008, the day same-sex marriages became legal in Connecticut, through the end of May, 139 same-sex couples applied for a marriage license and wed in Greenwich. All but three of them were been from out of state, most from New York City, according to Barbara Lowden, the town’s assistant registrar of vital statistics.
The town has the most same-sex marriages in Connecticut; statewide figures through February, the most recent available, showed Greenwich as the wedding spot for one in every five gay couples, though it has only 2 percent of the population.
Best known for its old- and new-money families stretching from the Long Island Sound to its fabled back country, Greenwich has been vexed in the past by its proximity to the border. In 2001, the crowds of people buying tickets for the Powerball lottery game, not available in New York, grew so big that town officials suspended sales for a day.
These days, by contrast, local businesses would like Greenwich’s new wave of toe-dippers to stick around a little longer than they have been. Most couples have a brief ceremony in a Town Hall meeting room or outside on the grounds, then leave immediately for receptions back in New York or honeymoons elsewhere.
Thomas C. Delaney, the general manager of the Hyatt Regency Greenwich, said the hotel had advertised on some gay and lesbian Web sites in hopes of attracting more business. The Hyatt averages 70 weddings a year, he said, but this summer only two same-sex weddings are scheduled so far. “We’d like to have a lot more,” he said.
June, the traditional month for wedding bliss, is coinciden
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LI: Battleground for gay marriage
he state Assembly approved a gay marriage bill by a fairly comfortable 89-52 margin, but the odds of passage remain much longer in the state Senate.
Fivethirtyeight.com, a national political Web site that uncannily picked primary and the presidential election result last year, breaks down the chances of gay marriage making it through New York. Their take? It won’t be easy unless Long Island’s state Senators overwhelmingly vote in favor of it.
According to fivethirtyeight.com, 20 state Senators are in favor, 16 are against and 26 have said nothing.
On the other hand, while no Republican has publicly come out in favor of the bill, we have 9 Republicans who we characterize as undecided (although several are thought to be leaning no). A majority of these Republicans are from Long Island, a swing region in New York state politics.
From the site:
On the other hand, while no Republican has publicly come out in favor of the bill, we have 9 Republicans who we characterize as undecided (although several are thought to be leaning no). A majority of these Republicans are from Long Island, a swing region in New York state politics.
For a complete breakdown on who is for it and against it, click here.
See LI: Battleground for gay marriage
Long Island Business News - Ronkonkoma,NY,USA * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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New York activists “absolutely serious” about marriage in 2009
LGBT advocates in New York hope polling in four key Long Island districts showing more than half of voters back marriage equality will force the state Senate to take action on a marriage bill; the state Assembly is likely to consider the measure next week. “Anybody who thinks we’re not serious about winning this in 2009 better throw cold water on themselves and wake up,” said Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda. “We are absolutely serious.” Daily News (New York) * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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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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Long Island legislator marries partner in Conn.
A Long Island legislator has legally married his partner in Connecticut.
Jon Cooper and Robert Cooper were wed in a park Thursday in Old Greenwich, Conn.
The 54-year-old Majority Leader of the Suffolk County Legislature called the brief ceremony “a public recognition of the private commitment that Rob and I have made for 29 years now.”
The Coopers have adopted and raised five children. See Long Island legislator marries partner in Conn. * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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LI gays to honor Harvey Milk
(New York City) When Harvey Milk attended high school in suburban Long Island in the 1940s, and later taught math and history and coached basketball there, he kept his sexuality a well-guarded secret.
“Like most men of his generation,” biographer Randy Shilts wrote in The Mayor of Castro Street, “Milk assiduously …
Tags: 1940s, Basketball, Castro Street, City High, Gays, harvey milk, Long Island, Math, New York City, Randy Shilts, Sexuality, Street MilkNew York gays to posthumously honor NY native Harvey Milk
(New York City) Slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk is being honored posthumously by a network of gay and lesbian organizations in his native New York.
The Long Island Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Services Network says Stuart Milk will accept an award on his uncle’s behalf at a gala on …
Tags: gay rights, Gays, harvey milk, Lesbian Organizations, Long Island, New York City, Transgender ServicesNY Gov. Paterson condemns vandalism at Bay Shore gay center
Gov. David A. Paterson has condemned the vandalism at a Bay Shore gay and lesbian center and said the state human rights commissioner would hold a public forum at the center this week.
In a statement Tuesday, Paterson called the vandalism “despicable.” State human rights commissioner Galen Kirkland will hold the forum at the center tomorrow at 3 p.m.
It’s his second visit to Suffolk in three months. He held community discussions after Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero was stabbed to death in Patch- ogue in November. Investigators say he was targeted by teens hunting for Hispanics to harass.
Donors have replaced the smashed windows and slashed tires on the van used by theLong Island Gay and Lesbian Youth Center in Bay Shore, which was attacked by vandals on Monday. See Paterson condemns vandalism at Bay Shore gay center
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Vandalism at Long Island LGBT center probed as hate crime
(Bay Shore, New York) Thousands of dollars in damage to the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth Center in Bay Shore was a message to the LGBT community that hate remains a “terrible reality,” the facility’s director said Tuesday.
The front door of the Center was smashed, all the windows of …
Tags: Bay Shore New York, Gay And Lesbian, Gay And Lesbian Youth, Gay Lesbian, Hate Crime, Lgbt Center, Lgbt Community, Long Island, Thousands Of Dollars, VandalismRudnick’s ‘New Century’ is a funny time
The one-liners fly furiously in “The New Century,” Paul Rudnick’s collection of four short plays that SpeakEasy Stage Company is presenting at the Boston Center for the Arts. Once they’ve all landed, you may be left wondering whether they actually add up to much, but while they’re in the air it’s hard to do anything but laugh.
“Make remarks, not war,” declares one of Rudnick’s characters, the flauntingly flamboyant Mr. Charles. The slogan could easily decorate a banner above any of Rudnick’s outlandish but decidedly unmilitant vignettes, from Mr. Charles’s own cable-access show in Palm Beach, where he’s been banished from New York for being “too gay,” to the opening monologue by one Helene Nadler of Massapequa, Long Island, mother of three gay children.
In Helene’s case, there is an actual banner over the stage, and it reads “P.L.G.B.T.Q.C.C.C. & O.” As Helene soon informs us, this stands for “Parents of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, the Transgendered, the Questioning, the Curious, the Creatively Concerned, and Others,” and Helene is here to show us that she is the most accepting, most loving, most liberal-minded mother of all time.
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