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Mayor faces charges over gay unions Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,8864355%255E1702,00.htmlhttp://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,8864355%255E1702,00.html
Mayor faces charges over gay unions
From correspondents in New Paltz, New York
04mar04
THE mayor of the small upstate New York town of New Paltz vowed to go ahead with up to two dozen same-sex weddings this weekend, despite being charged with 19 criminal counts and possibly facing jail for marrying gay couples.
Mayor Jason West insisted today that it was the state Health Department that was breaking the law by refusing to give marriage licences to same-sex couples.
"Our state constitution requires equal protection for all New Yorkers," he said on the NBC television show Today.
A crowd of gay couples was expected to go to the county administration building in Portland, Oregon today after a county commissioner there said she would begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
West, 26, said he was motivated by civil rights and "common decency" to join the vanguard of the growing gay marriage movement, along with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.
West married 25 gay couples on Friday, making his small college village 120 km north of New York City another flashpoint in the US debate over gay marriage.
More than 3400 couples have been married in San Francisco; West now has about 1000 couples on a waiting list.
West, a Green Party member, was to be in court tonight to answer charges that he married 19 couples knowing they did not have marriage licences, a violation of New York State's domestic relations law.
The movement appears to be gaining steam. In Oregon, Multnomah County Chair Diane Linn directed the county to begin issuing such licences, after consulting with the county attorney, but without an official vote from the four other county commissioners.
Most Americans are opposed to gay marriage. President George W Bush has proposed a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage.
In New Paltz, the mayor was charged with a misdemeanor and the punishment could run from a $US25 to $US500 ($33 to $656) fine or jail time.
The state Health Department last week said New York's domestic relations law bars marriage licences being issued to same-sex couples and that New York courts have recognised only marriages between men and women.
Critics say that is unconstitutional.
In Washington Congress was expected to take its first steps today toward what promises to be a divisive election year battle over a federal constitutional amendment banning gay marriages.
A Senate subcommittee is focusing on whether judges are overstepping their bounds and eroding traditional marriage. The Massachusetts high court ruled in November that gay couples have a constitutional right to marry.
Vice President Dick Cheney said he supports such a constitutional amendment, even though one of his daughters is gay and he has said in the past the issue should be left to the states.
"The president's taken the clear position that he supports a constitutional amendment," Cheney said in an interview yesterday with MSNBC television. "I support him."
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