New York Governor David Paterson's sticking to his good, gay word.

The politico, who took over after Eliot Spitzer's hooker scandal, vowed earlier this year to bring same-sex nuptials to the Empire State. While couples can't yet marry within state lines, Paterson and his team this month declared that New York must accommodate gay marriages performed elsewhere, like California, which will likely start issuing same-sex marriage licenses June 17th.

In a directive issued on May 14, the governor’s legal counsel, David Nocenti, instructed the agencies that gay couples married elsewhere “should be afforded the same recognition as any other legally performed union.”

The revisions are most likely to involve as many as 1,300 statutes and regulations in New York governing everything from joint filing of income tax returns to transferring fishing licenses between spouses.
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Legal experts said Mr. Paterson’s decision would make New York the only state that did not itself allow gay marriage but fully recognized same-sex unions entered into elsewhere.

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Khadijah Farmer definitely has something to celebrate!

The New York resident won a settlement in her discrimination case against a West Village restaurant, Caliente Cab Company.

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On Sunday night, a new gay men’s strip club opened at 440 Broadway.

It's called Magnum 54 and it was to be only the second serious entry of men-for-men strip joints in recent memory.

The gays who frequent this sort of thing were very excited about the new venue, particularly because it described itself as upscale, guaranteed muscled men, and was to offer “No G-STRING LAP DANCES.”

And, unfortunately, the "grand opening" turned into an utter disaster.
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Those of you outside of New York probably aren't following this story, but State Island Representative Vito Fossella grabbed headlines last week when he was arrested for drunk driving.

Well, as can expected, the Republican politico's private life has been getting probed like you wouldn't believe. One of the juicier details: the married father of two had an illicit affair - and bastard child - with another woman.

It's good old-fashioned fun, of course, and Pride Agenda just made it even more of a knee-slapper by reminding us of Fossella's predictable political history: "…We thought it would be useful to remind people that the Staten Island Representative had voted not once or twice–but three times to, as many of his colleagues argued, 'preserve the sanctity of marriage.'"

Absolutely shocking.

Like a mutating beast, New York's ever-evolving. And the art scene's no different.

With the opening of the new New Museum on the Bowery, our Lower East Side's again becoming an epicenter for urban artistic activity. Gallerists Dennis Christie and Ken Tyburski couldn't resist the pull and recently unveiled their DCKT Contemporary's new location just down the famed road from the Museum.

In celebration of the event, 35-year old Christie recently sat down with Queerty contributor Justin Conner to discuss his artistic roots, how to late Andy Warhol pulled him to the city and why he ignores the market's boom, even if it could go bust.

Check it out, after the jump.

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Supporters of New York's Empire State Agenda bussed it up to Albany today to lobby their legislators to support gay rights measures.

[We are] traveling to Albany to help win marriage equality, transgender non-discrimination protections, safe schools for LGBT youth, and more funding for our community’s health and human services needs.

Last year we brought more than 1100 people from all across New York to make sure that our elected officials in Albany saw first hand the power and determination of our community and our allies. This year will be even bigger!

We couldn't be there, unfortunately, but we're more than happy to pass along the gay non-profit's video, Lobbying Your Legislator. More informative instructions can be found here. There's nothing sexier than activism. Okay, that may not be true, but activism definitely gets points in our books.

New York-based homos Dan Pinello, 58, and Lee Nissensohn, 50 have some balls. Knowing full well that the Empire State doesn't grant gay marriage licenses, the boys, 58 and 50, respectively, marched down to the Oyster Bay clerk's office yesterday and asked for the ceremonial form.

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Lesbian politician Christine Quinn's desperately trying to win back her political peers.

The New York City Council Speaker came under earlier this month after the NY Post reported that the council had funneled millions into fake organizations and used the dough as a slush fund. The paper also revealed that Quinn knew about the potential fraud many months ago and fumbled in cleaning up the mess. Now, as the investigation heats up and Quinn's calling in defense lawyers, the lesbian politico's apparently apologizing left and right:

In a series of private meetings with rank-and-file members of the City Council on Monday, Speaker Christine C. Quinn kept apologizing. She told them she had blundered badly in her response to revelations about the Council’s appropriation of money to fictitious organizations.

“I’m terribly sorry for the way I did this, with no consultation,” one council member recalled her saying. “You read in the paper about people in crisis situations doing things and you say, ‘How could they have been so stupid?’ And now I know how they could have been that stupid.”

We have to admit, we're a bit surprised, as well. We always thought Quinn to be an above-it-all sort of girl. Now we think she may just be another politician out for her own.

Christine Quinn's trying her hardest to control the damage from this month's slush fun scandal. The openly lesbianic New York City council speaker found herself in the spotlight after NY Post reported that millions of city funds had been stashed in phony organizations and distributed at the council's discretion. On Friday, as calls for her head grew louder, Quinn announced sweeping reforms, saying that she and her staff would limit discretionary funds, thus giving much of the power to the Mayor's office.

While Quinn's announcement was meant to quell criticism, some of her peers still aren't having it:

Brooklyn Councilman Charles Barron has called for Quinn to step down, and although other members tossed around the word coup yesterday, they said there were no plots to oust her from her post.

Quinn spokesman Jamie McShane said the speaker acknowledges the hurt feelings and is calling and meeting with her colleagues to address them.

"Chris acknowledges that she should have consulted her members prior to announcing the reforms," McShane said. "She's reaching out, seeking feedback and suggestions, and she'll continue to do so throughout the week."

Speaking of reaching out, Speaker Quinn also upped her defense by hiring defense attorney Lee S. Richards III. Richards will no doubt come in handy as federal and state authorities dig deeper into her involvement in the scandal.

Last night may have been the gayest in our New York history. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but things were pretty lavender from the get-go.

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New York will get same-sex marriage. Well, it will if Governor David Paterson has his way.

The gay friendly politico couldn't attend last night's National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's leadership dinner, during which he was meant to receive an award, so the gay-friendly politico sent a video message in which he chats about the state's progressive history, how Martin Luther King Jr. paved the way for gay rights and why he's proud to have run with Eliot Spitzer, who resigned last month in the wake of his whore scandal.

The bulk of Paterson's message concerns marriage equality in the Empire State, which the Governor describes as a political imperative:

We will push on an bring full marriage equality in New York State. And when we have done that, we're going to do more.

We're going to protect young people from bullies. We're going to protect against the discrimination of people in the transgender community, and we're going to fight for decent and affordable healthcare for all citizens in this state.

If you will join with me, and if we work hard enough, we can change the face of New York, which will be the catalyst to changing national policy.

The crowd, we're sure, went wild.

Legendarily straight Tom Cruise apparently can't even handle being mentioned in a gay book! Former Village Person Randy Jones' new biography included an eighties-era anecdote involving him and Tom, but the actor's people had it removed. How queer.

"Tom and I had the same management company at the time," Jones told me at the new Bowery hot spot Antik. "I met him at a party Andy Warhol threw for Peter Gatien's Limelight [nightclub offshoot] in Atlanta."

To hear Jones tell the story, it was quite a party. But after calls went out to a spokeswoman and attorney for the Mission: Impossible star yesterday, the book's editor assured me that Cruise's name had been removed from the final version.

Great, now we're forced to use our imagination!