New York Recognizes Out-of-State Same-Sex ‘Marriages’

by Devon Williams, associate editor of CitizenLink Daily

‘Marriage is not a legal vehicle for the purpose of equality; it’s a social institution with children at its heart.’

New York Gov. David Paterson has sided with gay activists by deciding to change up to 1,300 state policies and regulations to include same-sex couples who were “married” elsewhere.

Paterson’s directive to state agencies was issued May 14 and became public this week.

Same-sex “marriage” is illegal within New York state borders, but the Court of Appeals, the highest court in New York, decided this month to let stand a ruling that required the state to recognize same-sex “marriages” performed legally elsewhere. Paterson’s directive affirms the ruling.

In 2006, the same court ruled that only the union of a man and a woman is a legal marriage, and that the definition is constitutional.

Jenny Tyree, associate marriage analyst at Focus on the Family Action, said the court and Paterson are ignoring the 20 million New Yorkers who have defined traditional marriage via state statutes.

“Our children and grandchildren will pay a very high price if we allow marriage to be changed to suit another purpose entirely,” she said. “Marriage is not a legal vehicle for the purpose of equality; it’s a social institution with children at its heart.”

Paterson’s directive follows the recent 4-3 decision by the California Supreme Court to legalize same-sex “marriage.”

Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said these actions highlight the need for marriage protection at the federal level.

“A governor’s constitutional duty is to enforce the laws of his state, not make them,” he said. “The legal quagmire created by these authoritarian decrees reinforces the need for a federal marriage amendment to be added to the U.S. Constitution.”

Now is the time to ask your U.S. representative to co-sponsor the Marriage Protection Amendment.

Marriage Protection Amendment as Response to NY Governor’s Forced “Gay Marriage” Rulings of CA and MA Judges

The Alliance for Marriage called upon Congress to pass AFM’s Marriage Protection Amendment in response to New York Governor David Patterson’s stunning directive ordering New York State to recognize “same-sex marriages” performed in California, Massachusetts, and Canada.

“By executive fiat, New York has become the second state in two weeks to overturn both common sense and the Will of the People on the definition of marriage,” said Matt Daniels, president and founder of the Alliance for Marriage. “Today’s directive from Governor Patterson illustrates the need for the Marriage Protection Amendment drafted by AFM.”

“The anti-democratic fallout of the California Supreme Court decision striking down marriage is not unexpected, and will only continue to crash down upon other states nationwide,” said Daniels. “AFM has led the charge in Congress for federal protection of marriage as the only way to prevent the decisions of judges in California and elsewhere being forced on residents of other states.”

“Most Americans – and most New Yorkers – want our laws to send a positive message to kids about marriage, family and their future. Today is a sad day for the people of New York who have lost the right to choose the course that is best for them, their families and their children,” continued Daniels.

“Americans believe that gays and lesbians are free to live as they choose, but they don’t believe they have a right to redefine marriage for our entire society,” said Daniels. “But the common-sense definition of marriage – and the values of most Americans – cannot be protected apart from AFM’s Marriage Protection Amendment.”

The Alliance for Marriage and Alliance for Marriage Foundation are multicultural coalitions whose Board of Advisors includes Rev. Walter Fauntroy – the D.C. Coordinator of the March on Washington for Martin Luther King Jr. – as well as other civil rights and religious leaders, and national legal experts.

Source: Emailed press release from http://www.afmusa.org.

Marriage Under Further Attack!

by Illinois Family Institute

Two weeks ago, four activist judges on the California State Supreme Court overturned the express will of the voters of California and declared homosexual “marriage” legal in that state.

Yesterday, New York’s Governor, David A. Paterson, sidestepping that state’s voters and their Legislature, directed all state agencies to revise their policies and regulations to recognize homosexual “marriages” performed in other states or countries.

Last year a bill that would have legalized homosexual “marriage” in New York failed to pass.

Paterson’s directive makes New York the only state that does not allow homosexual “marriage” itself but recognizes homosexual unions entered into elsewhere. The directive will require revisions to an estimated 1,300 New York statutes and regulations.

The move by Gov. Paterson works in tandem with the recent California decision. Unlike Massachusetts (the only other state to legalize homosexual “marriage”) the California decision does not have a residency requirement. Homosexual partners living in New York could travel to California, participate in a so-called “marriage” ceremony, and return to New York to demand full recognition of their union.

“The legal chaos surrounding marriage has begun, thanks to the recent California decision,” said IFI’s Executive Director David E. Smith. “This latest usurpation of the democratic process — this time via the executive branch — ignores the people’s will to keep marriage from being redefined. This latest attack only underscores the necessity of protecting marriage through constitutional amendments at the state — and ultimately the federal – levels.”

If you haven’t already communicated your opposition to the current push for counterfeit marriage (civil unions) here in Illinois, this is a prime opportunity to do so! I cannot stress enough the urgency of your action here.

Click HERE to send an email or fax to your State Representative today and ask him/her to vote ‘NO’ to the “Civil Unions” bill — HB 1826. Our email system is very easy to use, and it will only take a minute or two of your time.

Family group criticizes New York governor for recognizing gay marriage by executive order

An un-elected governor is trying to bypass the will of the people and foist gay marriage upon its citizens. Obviously, New York state’s highest officers have had major problems honoring the sanctity of marriage,” said David Edmunds of The Family Foundation of Kentucky. Gov. David Patterson became governor by default when Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned during a scandal involving his affairs with several prostitutes. Then, just hours after taking the oath of office, Patterson also admitted that he had affairs with “a number of women,” including a current state employee.

“New York voters and citizens across the country should start examining the character of their candidates as well as their deepest convictions about marriage,” said Edmunds

Gov. Patterson’s executive order would recognize gay marriages performed outside the state of New York, including gay marriages performed in California or Canada. The order directs state agencies to honor all the legal privileges of marriage.

“These privileges are essentially upgraded domestic partner benefits,” said Edmunds. “Kentuckians should be watching developments closely because several state universities have been pushing this domestic partner agenda dangerously close to the cliff of gay marriage.”

Edmunds emphasized that Kentuckians citizens have already spoken in resounding fashion that they want marriage between one man and one woman to be honored with special and distinct legal status and benefits.

Source: Emailed Press Release, May 29, 2008.

America’s Moral Compass: Adultery and Hypocrisy Are Still Wrong

Widespread disgust over the alleged adultery and prostitution involvement of Democratic New York Governor Eliot Spitzer shows the America still has a moral compass, according to West Coast pro-family organization Campaign for Children and Families.

In reaction to the federal complaint implicating Spitzer in a prostitution ring, Campaign for Children and Families President Randy Thomasson said, “Character matters. A person’s ‘private life’ matters. What is inside eventually shows on the outside. The reason that America is disgusted with the alleged prostituting lifestyle of Eliot Spitzer is because America’s moral compass is still working. Fortunately, the United States has not forgotten how to blush.”

Despite some viewing Spitzer as a “moral authority,” noting he had instituted a “moral code” to clean up Wall Street and fight organized crime, Spitzer apparently has no moral code in sexual matters. More than any governor, Spitzer has tried to destroy the man-woman marriage definition and to license homosexual “marriages.” As Attorney General, he harassed pro-life crisis pregnancy centers.

On Monday, as the alleged prostitution involvement was breaking, Spitzer was scheduled to speak to New York’s largest pro-abortion organization, Family Planning Advocates, which supports unlimited tax-funded abortions, without regard to a girl’s age or the number of tax-funded abortions in a calendar year.

“Spitzer has embraced anti-family public policies since day one,” said Thomasson. “Is it any surprise that his so-called ‘private’ policies are also destructive to his own family? His immoral practices have made him unfit for public office. It’s sad that his wife stood next to him, instead of distancing herself to show her real hurt and disapproval. As Dina Matos McGreevey would tell you, this ‘stand by your political man’ act is a sad, choreographed charade.”

Quotes about character and the public trust:

“When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.”
— Thomas Jefferson, Rayner’s “Life of Jefferson,” p. 356

“…the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness…”
— Constitution of the State of New York, Article I, Section 3

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion….Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
— President John Adams, October 11, 1798, in a letter to the officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts.

Source: Campaign for Children and Families

New York Governor Launches Crusade to Expand Abortions

The state is already the national leader in abortions.

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, is pushing the Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act, which declares that women have a “fundamental right” to abortion — including in the third trimester. The bill also takes out any reference to the preborn child as a “person.”
The state is already the national leader in abortions — the annual rate of 38 per 1,000 women of childbearing age is the highest of any state and twice the national average, the New York Daily News reported.

New York has neither mandatory waiting periods for abortion nor parental-notice requirements. The state Medicaid program covers abortion for poor women.

“Our governor wants to make sure that our state has the most strengthened law concerning abortion in the entire nation,” said the Rev. Jason McGuire, assistant to the director at New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms.

“That bill really creates some pretty heinous provisions. It violates not only the life of the unborn child, even in the third trimester, it actually endangers the life of the woman.”

Source: Family News In Focus.

New York Appeals Ruling that Attacks Traditional Marriage in New York

Officials in Monroe County, N.Y., plan to appeal a court ruling that requires New York to recognize same-sex “marriages” performed outside the state. Gay activists have gathered in upstate New York to protest.

On Feb. 1, the Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court ordered the Monroe County Community College in Rochester to extend health benefits to an employee’s lesbian partner after they were legally married in Canada. That followed a judge’s ruling in 2006 that the school did not have to provide benefits.

Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said the Feb. 1 ruling was based on the faulty premise that New York has no public policy defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

“If a couple hundred years of custom, practice and legal support for traditional marriage doesn’t amount to a very definite public policy, then nothing does,” he said.

Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks, a Republican, said the ruling was a misinterpretation of the law.

“In this particular case, we’re letting people in Ontario, Canada, define marriage for people who live in New York state. I don’t think that’s appropriate,” she said.

The New York Court of Appeals will decide if the appeal will be heard.

Source: CitizenLink.