Way back when I wasn’t in favor of gay marriage (man, has that changed or what?) I said that the biggest problem was going to be honoring them from state to state. I assumed (and not without basis) that the full faith and credit clause would apply, and that gay marriages in states that allow it would have to be honored by states where it wasn’t legal.
New York has taken a step in that direction, voluntarily:
In what is being hailed as a major victory for gay couples, the state will soon begin recognizing same-sex marriages performed legally in other jurisdictions.
Gov. Paterson quietly gave the order in a May 14 memo through his counsel, David Nocenti, that directed state agencies to provide all the same rights to gay couples who are married legally elsewhere as they do to straight married couples.
In issuing the order, Nocenti cited a recent upstate court decision that found same-sex marriages performed legally elsewhere are to be recognized in New York “in the absence of express legislation to the contrary.”
Agencies that do not comply, Nocenti warned, “could be subject to liability.”
“It is now timely to conduct a review of your agency’s policy statements and regulations, and those statutes whose construction is vested in your agency, to ensure that terms such as ’spouse,’ ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ are construed in a manner that encompasses legal same-sex marriages,” Nocenti wrote.
I’m all for this, and happy with the decision, but this is just a voluntary application of the full faith and credit clause. In my opinion, that’s all well and good, but I was told it wouldn’t happen, and it has.
Right again.
