Articles and Letters

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January 5, 2006 - Rutland (VT) Herald
So perhaps the time has come to admit what civil union opponents have said all along. You may recall how some lawmakers who voted against the civil union law in 2000 had rubber ducks on their desks. Their message: If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it's a duck. Calling legalized gay relationships "civil unions" doesn't disguise what they really are: marriages. [read more]

December 27, 2005 - New York Journal News
The benefits these four people are trying to rescind are already in place, already have employees requesting them, and are protecting the families of all New Rochelle employees, not only those that have the legal right to marry. [read more]

December 11, 2005 - New York Journal News
Bonafe is among 25 young men between the ages of 16 and 21 who identify themselves as gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning and for whom the Ungar House is temporarily "home," a haven from the torment, neglect and discrimination linked to this often invisible population. The four-story brownstone in Manhattan's Gramercy neighborhood is a world away from the bucolic barns and animal pastures where Green Chimneys runs a 200-acre residential treatment center for troubled youths in Patterson. "These (LGBTQ) children were being shunted aside and not given a chance to survive," said Green Chimneys founder Samuel Ross Jr. "It just seemed another thing Green Chimneys should do. We're in the business of taking care of kids, and these were children in need." [read more]

December 5, 2005 - The Courier-Mail (England)
The new law gives homosexual couples the same property and inheritance rights as married heterosexual couples and entitles them to the same pension, immigration and tax benefits. [read more]

December 5, 2005 - New York Times (AP Wire)
A look at gay marriage and civil union laws around the world. [read more]

October 29, 2005 - Poughkeepsie Journal
ALBANY — New Paltz Mayor Jason West clearly exceeded his authority when he snubbed the marriage laws of New York and performed same-sex marriages, a mid-level court has ruled. [read more]

October 28, 2005 - Poughkeepsie Journal
KINGSTON — Residents and some city leaders are in agreement that Kingston needs a community center for gays and lesbians. But how such a building should be paid for is being debated. [read more]

October 22, 2005 - AP Newswire
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- A gay rights protest at the U.S. Naval Academy Friday was held without incident, with about 40 protesters mixing with midshipmen for two hours, despite the Academy's warning beforehand that protesters risked arrest if they came on campus. [read more]

October 22, 2005 - NY Times
Yesterday, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the starkly different penalties violated the federal Constitution's equal protection clause. It said the state's "Romeo and Juliet" statute, which limits the punishment that can be imposed on older teenagers who have sex with younger ones, but only if they are of the opposite sex, must also apply to teenagers who engage in homosexual sex. [read more]

September 29, 2005 - Danbury News-Times
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Not only will life change for same-sex couples in Connecticut when civil unions become law Saturday, it will change for their employers. [read more]

September 29, 2005 - Poughkeepsie Journal
An Orange County resident and former top national official with a gay Republican group has announced he is exploring a run in a GOP primary next year against incumbent U.S. Rep. Sue Kelly, R-Katonah. [read more]

September 7, 2005 - Union-Tribune (CA)
SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Wednesday he will veto a bill that would have made California the first state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage through legislative action. [read more]

September 2, 2005 - Union-Tribune (CA)
SACRAMENTO – The state Senate became the first legislative chamber in the nation to pass a measure that would legalize same-sex marriage, setting up a showdown next week in the Assembly, which rejected the proposal just three months ago. [read more]

July 24, 2005 - Poughkeepsie Journal
Ulster County District Attorney Donald A. Williams purported to act for "the People of the State of New York" when he decided to bring criminal charges against New Paltz Mayor Jason West, a year and a half ago. He acted in the people's name, too, recently, when he abandoned the prosecution, just as the court was about to set a date for a jury trial, conceding the prosecution "would be lacking in a viable public purpose" and "would not be in the best interests of the community." [read more]

July 03, 2005 - NY Journal News
It took two years, three public hearings and several emotional debates — in which both sides invoked God, family and the Constitution — before Westchester County legislators voted to create a domestic partner registry that would allow unmarried couples to seek some of the benefits of marriage. [read more]

July 03, 2005 - NY Times
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- California's attorney general on Friday urged the state Supreme Court to decide whether gay marriage is permitted under the state constitution. [read more]

June 30, 2005 - NY Journal News
The vote in Canada's House of Commons to recognize gay marriages late Tuesday added to the accelerating but ricocheting developments involving the marriages that may continue today, when Spain's parliament also is expected to vote on whether to allow gays to wed in that heavily Catholic country. [read more]

June 30, 2005 - Associated Press
Madrid ­ Legislators on Thursday voted to make traditionally Roman Catholic Spain the world's fourth country to give same-sex couples many of the same rights as heterosexual spouses. [read more]

June 5, 2005 - Poughkeepsie Journal
NEW PALTZ — Stone Ridge retiree Ted Hayes has heart problems and bad arthritis. But that won't stop the 74-year-old from joining the Ulster County's first gay pride march and festival in New Paltz June 12. He'll join friends and about 25 local organizations scheduled to march down Main Street to Hasbrouck Park, where the festival will be held. June 12 marks New Paltz Pride Day, as proclaimed by the New Paltz town board. [read more]

June 3, 2005 - Boston Globe
SACRAMENTO, CA -- An effort that would have legalized same-sex marriage in California fell short in the state Assembly early yesterday after a small group of moderate Democrats rebuffed the measure. Despite intense lobbying, a dozen Democrats refused to support a bill by Assemblyman Mark Leno, Democrat of San Francisco, that would have allowed tens of thousands of same-sex partners to marry, gaining expanded rights to healthcare, Social Security, and military benefits. [read more]

May 27, 2005 - Times-Herald Record
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- The village mayor who challenged New York law by attempting to marry gay couples will face trial, the state's highest court ruled Friday. [read more]

April 20, 2005 - New York Times
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Connecticut on Wednesday became the second state to offer civil unions to gay couples -- and the first to do so without being forced by the courts. About an hour after the state Senate sent her the legislation, Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed into law a bill that will afford same-sex couples in Connecticut many of the rights and privileges of married couples. [read more]

April 16, 2005 - New York Times
ABOUT six years ago, the organization Love Makes a Family of Connecticut, advocates for same-sex marriage, began introducing legislators to their gay neighbors. Coffee was served and couples explained what a gay family looked like, and everyone left knowing a little more. [read more]

April 16, 2005 - Danbury News-Times
After six hours of debate, the state House of Representatives voted 85 to 63 to recognize civil unions between same-sex couples, bringing the state one step closer to making history. [read more]

March 15, 2005 - Law.Com
Legal groups opposed to gay marriage say they'll attack a San Francisco Superior Court judge's strict-scrutiny analysis of California marriage laws on appeal. In a tentative decision Monday, Judge Richard Kramer declared the state laws limiting marriage to a man and a woman unconstitutional. [read more]

March 14, 2005 - ABC News
Mar. 14, 2005 - A judge ruled Monday that California's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, saying the state could no longer justify limiting marriage to a man and a woman. [read more]

February 15, 2005 - New York Journal News
NYACK — The legal niceties of a court decision wouldn't seem particularly sentimental, but for nearly two dozen people at Nyack Village Hall last night, it had the ring of romance. [read more]

February 4, 2005 - New York Times
NEW YORK (AP) -- A judge declared Friday that a law banning same-sex marriage violates the state constitution, a first-of-its-kind ruling in New York that would clear the way for gay couples to wed if it survives on appeal. [read more]

February 1, 2005 - New York Times
SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- A gay rights group is challenging an amendment to Oregon's Constitution banning same-sex marriage, arguing it revises rather than amends the document. [read more]

January 31, 2005 - Times Herald Record
First, SpongeBob SquarePants got outed at a black-tie inaugural dinner. Christian-rights activist James Dobson told the stunned celebrants, including some members of Congress, that the popular cartoon character is starring in a "pro-homosexuality" video. [read more]

January 19, 2005 - New York Journal News
Angered by Eastchester's decision to stop offering medical benefits to town employees' domestic partners, one Peekskill councilman wants his community to start doing so. [read more]

January 15, 2005 - Associated Press
ELMIRA, N.Y. (AP) -- Attorneys for 25 same-sex couples seeking the right to marry said Friday the state's opposition to gay marriage is akin to the mentality that once allowed slavery and discrimination against women and minorities. [read more]

January 09, 2005 - New York Journal News
The narrow vote by the Eastchester Town Board last week to stop offering health benefits to the partners of its gay employees has received little notice from other municipalities, school districts and companies in the region that offer the benefits. They said their decisions to recognize their gay workers have ignited none of the controversy created in Eastchester. [read more]

Click here for Articles from 2004