Office of the President
Dear Lucas:
It was my privilege to recently participate in a press conference with President-Elect Vincent Doyle and other leaders of the legal profession to support legislation that would authorize marriage of same-sex couples in New York State.
Throughout the debate over this emotional topic, the State Bar has focused on the point that marriage is a contract that creates a legal relationship under our law. Without being able to marry, same-sex couples face discrimination in a wide range of areas that most New Yorkers take for granted. This includes health care, housing, child raising, inheritance, wrongful death actions and property rights should a couple split up.
While some changes to the law in recent years provide limited rights to same-sex partners, the crazy quilt approach we have in New York does not work. Same-sex partners are forced to enter into agreements to attempt to mimic the rights and responsibilities that married couples enjoy. And, there is too much uncertainty remaining to provide comfort to these couples.
After studying this topic for several years, in 2009, the State Bar House of Delegates determined that only by allowing these couples to marry will they and their children be able to navigate the legal issues that arise. We reached this conclusion after initially considering whether domestic partnerships or civil unions could be used to ensure that gay and lesbian couples and their children were accorded equal rights under the law. We concluded that those options were legally unacceptable because they do not provide the widely-recognized legal status that marriage does.
Without a law to authorize same-sex marriage, substantial hardship will result for these couples, because there are over 1300 laws and regulations in New York that affect married and unmarried couples differently. Many of these laws provide automatic safeguards for married couples; there are no such safeguards for same-sex couples.
Passing legislation to authorize same-sex marriage is a top legislative priority for the State Bar, because it concerns fairness and equity under the law, and it is sound public policy. Permitting marriage would relieve the tens of thousands of same-sex couples in our state and their children from the legal limbo that now surrounds them.
Our advocacy efforts in support of this issue will continue as the state legislative session comes to a close. As a part of that effort, I ask that you to contact your Assemblyman or Assemblywoman and urge that he or she co-sponsor of the legislation recently introduced by Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell, who has been the lead sponsor of previous legislation to authorize same-sex marriage in New York.
Please click on the link and go to the NYSBA Legislative Action Center to send a message to your Member of the Assembly: www.nysba.org/legislativeactioncenter .
Best regards,
Stephen P. Younger
President, New York State Bar Association
Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP