One step closer to marriage equality
By Suolan Jiang on 06/27/2011 @ 01:00 PM
Last week, New York State passed a same-sex marriage bill and became the sixth state to legalize gay marriage, following Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. The bill was passed and signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday night.
Same-sex marriage first became an issue after three homosexual couples were denied rights to get married legally in Hawaii in 1993. Discouraging the efforts of same-sex marriage, the United States Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, officially denying the validity of gay marriage. In the state of New York, the same-sex marriage bill was passed by the assembly twice but has never gone through the Senate.
The impact of this bill is significant. Since New York is by far the biggest state to pass a marriage equality bill, the number of gay couples could double, according to the Reuters. Arthur Leonard, a New York University Law School professor also pointed out the uniqueness of New York in this news piece. Compared to Massachusetts, the first state to legalize the issue in a court ruling, New York instituted same-sex marriage through legislation and complete with religious exemptions. National Public Radio considers New York a breakthrough that would have “nationwide repercussions” and accelerate the process of pushing the issue to the door of the Congress or the Supreme Court. In an economic perspective, the passage of the bill would bring $210 million economic benefits to the state, as is shown in an analysis of the New York City Comptroller in 2009.
No Limits is pleased to see that the state of New York has extended marriage equality to LGBT individuals. We hope to see more states follow suit.
Watch the CBS News NY legalizes same-sex marriage here.
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