New York Signs On To Marriage Equality

I don't know if Eliot Spitzer would have done this, but good for David Paterson:

ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson has directed all state agencies to begin to revise their policies and regulations to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions, like Massachusetts, California and Canada.

In a directive issued on May 14, the governor’s legal counsel, David Nocenti, instructed the agencies that gay couples married elsewhere “should be afforded the same recognition as any other legally performed union.”

The revisions are most likely to involve as many as 1,300 statutes and regulations in New York governing everything from joint filing of income tax returns to transferring fishing licenses between spouses.

In a videotaped message given to gay community leaders at a dinner on May 17, Mr. Paterson described the move as “a strong step toward marriage equality.” And people on both sides of the issue said it moved the state closer to fully legalizing same-sex unions in this state.

That's about as much as a governor can do without actually legalizing gay marriage inside the state. And DOMA makes this a barrier at the federal level. But we're seeing things move very quickly among some states; in effect, they're catching up with history.

UPDATE: This is awesome:



I've been doing that joke about not reading the entirety of the Bible for years. I don't see evangelicals picketing a Bubba Gump's yelling "GOD HATES SHELLFISH! GOD HATES SHELLFISH!"