Report and Recommendation on Marriage Rights for Same-Sex Couples

Abstract

This is a Report of the New York State Bar Association’s Special Committee on LGBT People and the Law, which was approved by the NYSBA House of Delegates on June 20, 2009. This is the second report published by NYSBA on the issue of the legal rights of same-sex couples. (The first document, Report and Recommendations of the Special Committee to Study Issues Affecting Same-Sex Couples, was published in October 2004.) This report explores the development of marriage rights through the courts in the U.S. states of California, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and Maryland; then-pending marriage legislation in the U.S; and global acceptance of marriage equality. The Report also reviews the then-relevant question of whether Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships could substitute for marriage equality, and concluded it could not. The Report also specifically examines marriage-equality concerns and legal development in New York State. It concludes by stating that “equality is possible only if same-sex couples have the right to marry,” a position overwhelmingly endorsed by NYSBA. New York State adopted marriage equality for same-sex couples on July 11, 2011.