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Gay Union Updates: Small Victories

By ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |
July 22, 2004

While the rest of the country was focused in on the U.S. Senate's failure to pass a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, advocates for same-sex couples' right to marry in New York recently won their own small victory. In a decision handed down by New Paltz Town Justice Judith M. Reichler on July 13, charges against two clergywomen for marrying same-sex couples without their first having obtained a license were dropped.

The ruling follows a similar decision made in June on charges against New Paltz Mayor Jason West, who kick-started the gay marriage movement in New York when he presided over the weddings of nearly two dozen same-sex couples in February. When he was charged that same week with several misdemeanor counts of marrying couples with no marriage licenses, West found himself unable to fulfill the promise he'd made to continue performing such weddings each subsequent weekend.

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