NY Prepares for Marriage Boom

Groups that work against family parity rights for same-sex couples like to claim that gays don't value marriage, and are concerned with gratification and self-indulgence rather than the hard work of commitment.

Tell that to the anticipated throngs of soon-to-be-wedded gay and lesbian families in New York, where, on July 24, marriage equality on the state level becomes a matter of law. (Federal level marriage is still denied same-sex couples under the anti-gay 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA.)

Even as the state's long-denied families gear up for their weddings, the state's bureaucracy is playing catch-up. The New York Times reported in a July 5 article on early birds logging on to fill out marriage license applications and wondering how to deal with suddenly-outdated forms asking who was the "bride" and who the "groom."

Fortunately, the city's updated online forms quickly caught up to the times, with gender-neutral options -- "Spouse A" and "Spouse B" -- introduced on July 4, the Associated Press announced in an article that same day. The state, however, lagged behind in making the necessary changes.

Even with the new forms available, there are other minor roadblocks in the path of thrilled gay and lesbian New York families. Those who are in a hurry to get their licenses the very day the law takes effect, July 24, may have to cool their heels for a day, given that July 24 is a Sunday.

Then there's the additional 24-hour waiting period between the issuance of a marriage license and the wedding itself.

Even for couples that have been together for years, serene and secure in their commitment despite the anti-gay rhetoric thrown at them by marriage equality opponents, the final hours before the end of an onerous age of second-class family status might seem excruciating.

There are some signs of relief, however: In New York City, the Times reported, judges will be available to allow long-patient couples exemptions to the waiting period, letting them claim that one early, extra day for their legally married lives together.

The city's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, uttered words of welcome to the same-sex couples expected to inundate the Big Apple.

"We will change everything to reflect the passage of a law which its time has certainly come," Bloomberg declared. "This is a city that welcomes everybody."

The excitement and impatience of committed couples seeking to solemnize their life partnerships with marriage instantly affected the state's martial statistics. "On Tuesday, the city received 20 percent more applications for marriage licenses than it did on a typical day last week," the Times article reported.

So much for the idea that same-sex families are self-indulgent hedonists incapable of forming durable, intimate emotional bonds.

Marriage opponents deny that the advent of marriage in New York -- by far the most populous single state where marriage is currently allowed -- will have significant, far-reaching implications in the national struggle for full GLBT civil equality. But advocates of marriage parity say that New York's new day can't help but shed light to the nation's far corners.

"New York is such a powerful stage," the head of Freedom to Marry, Evan Wolfson, was quoted as saying in a July 5 TIME Magazine article. "It's a powerful opportunity that is going to ripple through the country and the world."

Even as anti-gay groups seek to downplay the impact of the vote by New York lawmakers that brought marriage parity to the Empire State, they are focused with intense political heat on the four Republican lawmakers that broke ranks to help the measure into law.

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a group that played significant roles in yanking existing marriage rights from same-sex families in California in 2008 and then, a year later, denying Maine families the benefit of a marriage equality law by supporting a ballot-box repeal of the law before it could take effect, has issued angry threats against those lawmakers, pledging $2 million or more to see them tossed out of office in the next election.

NOM leader Brian Brown derided New York's new marriage equality law in code that has become all too familiar on the GLBT civil rights stage.

"Gay marriage has consequences for the next generation, for parents, and for religious people, institutions and small business owners," Brown declared, summing up a fistful of longstanding, and, in the past, highly effective talking points from the anti-gay right. Opponents swayed California voters with ads suggesting that if gay adults were allowed to marry, heterosexual schoolchildren would be "converted" to homosexuality. Anti-gay groups have also trumpeted the message that equal family rights for gays and lesbians would inevitably erode religious freedoms for those who cling to faith-based bias.

The New York law included protections for churches and religious groups, but NOM did not acknowledge this. Rather, the group sought to frame the issue as one of political betrayal.

"Politicians who campaign one way on marriage, and then vote the other, need to understand: Betraying and misleading voters has consequences, too," Brown warned. " We are not giving up, we will continue to fight to protect marriage in New York, as we are actively doing in New Hampshire and Iowa."

In those states, where marriage equality has been a matter of law for years now, NOM is leading a push to strip marriage rights from families in the same way California voters did in 2008 with Proposition 8. But that ballot initiative has been challenged in federal court and found to be unconstitutional. The case is now in appeal, and is widely expected to end up before the United States Supreme Court.

Questions of Constitutional muster may not have stopped NOM from seeking a repeat of California in 2008, but the national mood toward GLBTs and their families has warmed considerably since then, with a slim majority of American voters now in favor of marriage equality. For that reason, among others -- such as multiple challenges to DOMA in federal court, and the Obama Administration's refusal to defend the law on Constitutional grounds -- NOM's fight to punish gay families "will be an increasingly difficult battle," the TIME Magazine article predicted.

In the meantime, a whole lot of families are poised to enter into legal marriage, and to family parity supporters that means a strengthening and stabilizing -- rather than destructive -- influence for a troubled institution.