Friday, February 04, 2005

THE NEW YORK STATE SUPREME COURT CREATES ADAM AND STEVE
Don't go out and buy your bouquets and garters just yet, but a New York State Supreme Court Justice has ruled that the ban on same-sex marriage in the state is unconstitutional.
State Supreme Court Justice Doris Ling-Cohan ruled that the words "husband," "wife," "groom" and "bride" in relevant sections of the Domestic Relations Law "shall be construed to mean `spouse,' and all personal pronouns ... shall be construed to apply equally to either men or women."

Ling-Cohan, ruling for five same-sex couples who were denied marriage licenses, also said the New York City clerk could not deny a marriage license to any couple solely on the ground that the two are of the same sex.
Now, here is the caveat: in New York State, the Supreme Court is not the state's highest court. Oh, it has more authority than the village Justice of the Peace or Traffic Court, but it's not the ultimate authority. This ruling is good, but the battle is far from over.

Still, maybe the ruling will create enough legal ambiguity that Jason West won't have to worry about being raped in the shower for a while. And that's a good thing.

UPDATE: Okay, now it's three days later and Blogger still hasn't posted this fucking entry. How you got through the past weekend without my insightful legal analysis I'll never know.