First thing I've seen in print about it.
News conference scheduled for 1:30PM EST.
Same-Sex Couples Must Be Allowed To Marry in New York, Court Says; Lambda Legal To Hold Press Conference on Today’s Historic Ruling with Victorious Clients and Attorneys
'This is a historic ruling that delivers the state Constitution’s promise of equality to all New Yorkers.'
Press conference set for 1:30 p.m. in Manhattan
(New York, February 4, 2005) — A New York State court ruled today that same-sex couples must be allowed to marry, in a decision that Lambda Legal called “a historic ruling that delivers the state Constitution’s promise of equality to all New Yorkers.” Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit last year, representing five same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses in New York.
In a ruling issued this morning in New York City, State Supreme Court Judge Doris Ling-Cohan said that the New York State Constitution guarantees basic freedoms to lesbian and gay people – and that those rights are violated when same-sex couples are not allowed to marry. The ruling said the state Constitution requires same-sex couples to have equal access to marriage, and that the couples represented by Lambda Legal must be given marriage licenses.
“This is a historic ruling that delivers the state Constitution’s promise of equality to all New Yorkers,” said Susan Sommer, Supervising Attorney at Lambda Legal and the lead attorney on the case. “The court recognized that unless gay people can marry, they are not being treated equally under the law. Same-sex couples need the protections and security marriage provides, and this ruling says they’re entitled to get them the same way straight couples do.”
Further details on the ruling – and interviews with the couples in the case – will be available at a press conference today at Lambda Legal’s national headquarters in Lower Manhattan.
http://www.lambdalegal.org/cgi-bin/iowa/documents/record?record=1634
There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
- Nelson Mandela
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