Martha Coakley, the failed U.S. Senate candidate, is still Massachusetts’ attorney general, and she’s still harping on the federal government over the Defense of Marriage Act. So as New York voters decide who they want to replace Andrew Cuomo, the state’s AG and likely next governor, one criteria might be whether they’ll follow in Coakley’s shoes and sue the Obama administration over DOMA, too.
So far, we’ve got two (out of five) Yes answers!
Kathleen Rice, the Nassau County District Attorney, says she’ll kick the Fed’s butt on DOMA, and so too will State Sen. Eric Schneiderman (pictured with Queer As Folk‘s Michelle Clunie), who has a long history of pro-LGBT votes (marriage, hate crimes, workplace discrimination). You should watch his impassioned Senate floor speech about legalizing gay marriage here.
Who wants to make a promise to take DOMA to court a requirement for your vote?
How about we take this to the next level?
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Andrew
As a New Yorker, I’m quite happy to see that we seem to be one of the few states largely unaffected by the tea party.
Long Island Homo
while kathleen rice is pandering as hard as she can to gays in her quest to be AG, she’s accomplished absolutely nothing for gay people as district attorney, and in fact has some questionably anti-gay cases in her past. anyone who has ever seen her speak on the topic knows that her one supposed credential is “I have a gay brother!”– a factoid that she whips out in a way that’s actually quite insulting. i wonder if she also has a black friend?
(oh, she’s also a former republican!)
mgh
um, I hate to break it to you, but New York has no standing whatsoever to challenge DOMA. such a lawsuit would be an embarrassing loss for our movement.
though it recognizes them, New York doesn’t perform same-sex marriages, and in fact legally accommodates DOMA as a matter of tax policy (same-sex couples in NY, though married, are required to follow their federal tax status).
New York thus comes to this fight with entirely unclean hands. the only way the state can bring such a lawsuit is to claim that the federal government isn’t respecting its prerogatives as far as domestic relations are concerned. and they can’t argue that when the state, in fact, tolerates a fair amount of discrimination against same-sex couples.
until the law changes, New York has to sit out the DOMA fight.