N.Y. Court Says
Lawmakers Should
Consider Gay Marriage
By PATRICK HEALY,
NYTimes on the Web, July 6, 2006
The New York Court of Appeals ruled
this morning that the state Constitution does not guarantee a right to marriage
for same-sex couples, and that state lawmakers, not the courts, are better
suited to consider the issue.
In a 4-2 decision that has been eagerly awaited by both sides in the gay
marriage debate, the court, the highest in the state's judiciary system,
concluded that the legislature could have "a rational basis" for limiting
marriage to heterosexual couples, in large part because of their ability to bear
children.
The court did not rule that the state should not or could not allow gay
marriages, only that the state constitution did not require that it allow them.
The decision called the idea of same-sex marriage "a relatively new one" and
said that for most of history, society has conceived of marriage exclusively as
a bond between a man and a woman. "A court should not lightly conclude
that everyone who held this belief was irrational, ignorant or bigoted," the
decision stated.
"There are at least two grounds that rationally support the limitation on
marriage that the legislature has enacted," the court said, "both of which are
derived from the undisputed assumption that marriage is important to the welfare
of children."
First, the court said, marriage could be preserved as an "inducement" to
heterosexual couples to remain in stable, long-term, and child-bearing
relationships. Second, lawmakers could rationally conclude that "it is
better, other things being equal, for children to grow up with both a mother and
the father."
"Intuition and experience suggest that a child benefits from having before his
or her eyes, every day, living models of what both a man and a woman are like,"
the court said.
The court rejected parallels to laws barring interracial marriage, and the claim
that sheer homophobia lay at the root of current law. "Plaintiffs have not
persuaded us that this long-accepted restriction is a wholly irrational one,
based solely on ignorance and prejudice against homosexuals," the court said.
One state, Massachusetts, currently permits gay marriage.
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