New York Governor David Paterson’s office issued an executive directive last month that the state should recognize marriages between couples of the same gender, in keeping with the state’s traditional stance on marriages granted by other jurisdictions.However, that directive rubs up against the legal lack of marriage equality on the state of New York--and also has rubbed some conservatives and religious leaders the wrong way.
Catholic officals, in particular, have come out against the directive, with Bishop William Murphy saying that the governor is "just plain wrong," and claiming that "Sexual intimacy between persons of the same sex does not pass muster," reported newsday.com in an article published June 13.
Bishop Murphy was writing in The Long Island Catholic, a diocesan newspaper.
Murphy also wrote that unions between gay individuals "do not serve the common good."
The reason for this, the Bishop argued, is that committed relationships between people of the same gender "contradict biological teleology and the natural law."
Murphy wrote, "No matter how much some may wish to apply the term ’marriage’ [to gay or lesbian commitment], it does not fit because it fails the test of truth and authenticity."
Though the Bishop and other leaders voiced the opinion that the directive was issued without regard to the democratic process or the will of lawmakers and citizens, a spokesperson for the governor, Erin Duggan, characterized the May 14 directive to the state’s governmental offices as stemming from a recent court ruling that marriages performed outside of New York--in Massachusetts, for example, or in Canada, where marriage equality is a legal reality for gays and lesbians--must legally be recognized in New York state also.
For his part, Paterson has long been a proponent of marriage equality. Newsday.com quoted Paterson as saying, "People who live together for a long time would like to be married."
Added Paterson, "As far as I’m concerned, I think it’s beautiful."
The New York Times reported in a May 30 item that conservative lawmakers viewed the governor’s directive as a blindside.
Joseph Bruno, the state’s Senate Majority Leader, vowed to look into legal means of contesting the governor’s directive, the New York Times article reported.
Anti-gay religious groups also looked into legal action, reported the New York Times. The executive director for a coalition of evangelical churches called New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, the Rev. Duane Motley, was quoted in the article as saying, "Some of the attorneys who have spoken to us feel that the governor is overstepping his authority as chief executive, so you would sue on that basis."
The New York State Catholic Conference employed familiar rhetoric in condemning Paterson’s directive. Said the Conference’s executive director, Richard Barnes, in a statement, "No single politician or court or legislature should attempt to redefine the very building block of our society in a way that alters its entire meaning and purpose."
Newsday.com reported that Bishop Murphy’s remarks drew criticism from Lambda Legal, which supports legal actions to uphold GLBT equality. Said the group’s chief counsel, David Buckel, of Bishop Murphy’s article, "We live in the United States of America, and he can’t impose his views on others and he’s got to respect that line if he’s going to be an American."
The diocese’s spokesperson, Sean Dolan, countered that Murphy was simply doing his job as a church official: "He is exercising his responsibility as the shepherd of this diocese to teach the faith."
Continued Dolan, "That said, the message should not be misconstrued as an attack on the human dignity of homosexual people."
Said Dolan, "The church teaches that we must treat homosexuals with dignity and love, as we would all God’s children."
The New York Times article cited the state Assembly’s passage of legislation that would make New York the third state in the union, behind Massachusetts and California, to offer full marriage equality.
However, the state Senate has yet to allow the measure to come to a vote.
Recent polls suggest that pro-marriage equality sentiment is strong among New Yorkers.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce