The New York Civil Liberties Union applauded the State Assembly for taking an important step toward making same-gender-marriage for New Yorkers legal in the state by passing the marriage bill 89 to 52 on Tuesday night, and called on the State Senate to quickly pass the same bill.
“The State Assembly has joined Gov. Paterson in protecting New York families and must be applauded,” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said. “Now it’s time for the State Senate to join the governor and Assembly in supporting fairness, a core American value.”
The bill includes a religious exemption to make clear that it only impacts marriage as a civil institution – clergy will not have to solemnize marriages should the Senate approve the bill.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a statement:
“Today, the Assembly moved us closer than we have ever been to enacting a law allowing New Yorkers to enter into same-gender-marriage here in their home state, and I applaud Speaker Silver and members of both parties for moving this historic legislation forward. Governor Paterson has made it clear that he will sign this bill should it reach his desk, and I am working with this bill’s ever-growing coalition of supporters to help pass it in the Senate.
“Different religions have different ideas about what constitutes a marriage, and each of us may have our own personal beliefs on what marriage means. These can be strongly-held convictions, and I respect them. But many of us do not believe that it is government’s place to define marriage in a way that excludes many couples from the legal benefits associated with marriage, and I hope New York will soon become the latest state to adopt a law whose time has come.”
Same-gender marriage is currently legal in three states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa, but will soon be legal in Vermont on Sept. 1 and Maine on Sept. 14.
(Source: WCBSTV)
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19 Responses
Disgusting.
What’s next ? Legilization of marriage to my dog, horse or goldfish?
We are emotional cowards and don’t know how to separate emotion from logic. Just because people have unnatural tendencies, does not mean we should support it. How sad.
April 17, 2009
Agudath Israel Reaction to NYS Governor Paterson’s Marriage-Redefinition Bill
April 17, 2009
Following New York State Governor David A. Paterson’s introduction yesterday of a bill to legalize “Toeiva” marriage in the state, Agudath Israel of America reiterated its long-standing opposition to the proposed move. The organization’s official statement is below.
Agudath Israel of America strongly opposes the proposed redefinition of marriage in New York State.
Societies’ mores constantly shift, but eternal truths remain. The institution of marriage in its traditional form has served as the foundation of family and the bedrock of civilized society since time immemorial. In Agudath Israel’s view, tampering with marriage in the most fundamental way possible, by abandoning its definition as the sanctioned union of woman and man, is fraught with grave social danger.
Moreover, as has been repeatedly shown over recent years, the push to redefine marriage seeks to belittle those individuals and institutions who refuse to abandon their deep-seated and sincere religious beliefs. It is that prospect, more than the preservation of traditional marriage, that should be unacceptable to anyone concerned with basic civil rights.
Sadly it is our own that have sunk so low and support it. Speaker Silver sr’y who is a religious?? jew and Michael Bloomberg. Aren’t they scared of gehinnom? Everything you ever did to help anyone etc won’t help you upstairs? The torah explicitly says it’s not just forbidden it’s dirty and the earth will spit us out. How dare any jewish group embraces this dirty man who is causing such a chilul hash-m. Everyone knows Silver is against all traditional values against jessica’s law etc etc.
What’s next ? Legilization of marriage to my dog, horse or goldfish?
That is really uneducated comment. Unoriginal and uneducated.
People said the same thing about interracial marriage. And interfaith.
I would NEVER vote for Dov Hikind or anyone like him that cannot separate religion from politics. I am glad this passed. You can fight it all you want, with your torahs, bibles, and korans, but the fights against civil rights & justice never win in the end.
bump
#7 this is torah site , what is a atheist doing here? you state ‘your torah, your bible etc ‘ ‘ulefu shehotzi atzmo min haklall…..” there are plenty atheists sites.. #6 if he is not afraid of gehenom regarding the rest of ‘taryag’ why should he be afraid regading this toaiva?
THE MIDRASH TELLS US THAT SODOM AND GOMORRAH WERE DESTROYED, BECAUSE THEY MADE SAME-GENDER TOEVA MARRIAGE OFFICIAL, BY WRITING “MARRIAGE” CONTRACTS.
WE CAN EXPECT THE SAME FATE FOR THIS ONCE-GREAT COUNTRY, IF THIS JUGGERNAUT IS NOT STOPPED NOW.
#2:
Opposing the marriage bill on religious grounds is one thing, but it really damages credibility when you make illogical arguments like that. Stick to the arguments that carry water, like “it’s against the Torah” for opposing it, please. Otherwise you undermine the whole opposition.
#10..the problem these people don’t believe no midresh, torah etc.
I think that this whole affair is just another reminder to us that we are in GOLUS, that we no longer belong in this country, and that it is time to go home to Eretz Yisrael.
Because we are in Golus, we do not have the right to dictate to the general population of the country what THEIR laws should be. Our only concern is if and when the laws of the state PREVENT us from adhering to the mitzvot of the Torah, and this is NOT the case here.
Finally, we all know very well that “marriage” as a secular concept has NOTHING to do with “marriage” (i.e. kiddushin) in halacha. If New York State desires to recognize same-sex “marriage,” so what? They can call it anything they want, it has nothing to do with us! We know that there is no “halachic-marriage” without kiddushin, just as there is no halachic-divorce without gittin.
It is sad that the population of the country is on a slippery moral slope, but once again, it’s just a sign that it’s time for Yidden to leave.
#13 your very contradicting 1st you say we must leave this awful country and then you say there is no problem since marriage doesn’t define kidushin
so if there is no problem why do we have to leave sounds like soon we will all have to live a double live like the moranos in Spain pretty scary isn’t it?
#14 leave where to? in EY you also have to fight these ‘toeivos
#16 is right,if you dont belive in anything…soon we’ll have powerful groups to marry any of the ‘sheva kerovim, why not what will keep them from such ‘sedom’. the one above wont wait for that we already have financial meltdown, swine flu..and bfore he warned us with 9/11, kathrina floods..W.H.O. predicts swine flu will affect 1/3rd of populatin. Lets just keep on ignoring these warning signs.
We have to get of this golus ASAP, it’s one thing to discriminate against them and quite another to elevate their status. I feel bad for any “frum” Jew who supported this legislation. Why is it alright not to have a law protecting Shomer Shabbos workers, but not alright to not having laws protecting every perveted person in the workplace? I heard that a transgender person caused a horrfic trolley accident and was only hired because of his sickness that he did to himself. Obviously, our country believes that such a person has priority for jobs- so they put him in a protected “class”. But religious people who want to keep Shabbos even if they are competent are not only not protected, but there are tons of loopholes to discriminate against them.
RachelF, what do you say when a car is coming at you and you cannot move, “Oh, my science!” ????
Foolish person!
Sheldon Silver and his other cowardly demoncratic cronies will have to face Ha Kodesh Baruch Hu for all these ‘decisions’ they are making now.
We suffer here on earth, they will suffer for what they do here in the hereafter…
#16:
That is NOT what #2 said AT ALL. #2 made analogies to marrying horses, dogs, or goldfish. That is a completely false analogy and does not make any sense whatsoever. That’s what I was saying. You can’t substitute your own words and pretend that #2 made any sense.