Breaking News: New York Court Uses Childbearing to Rule Against Guarantee of Same-Sex Marriage

The New York Court of Appeals this morning ruled that “the state Constitution does not guarantee a right to marriage for same-sex couples.”

Even more infuriatingly, they used what I call the supposed “heterosexual-marriage childbearing privilege,” to do so, saying, “There are at least two grounds that rationally support the limitation on marriage that the legislature has enacted, both of which are derived from the undisputed assumption that marriage is important to the welfare of children. . . . Intuition and experience suggest that a child benefits from having before his or her eyes, every day, living models of what both a man and a woman are like.”

Never mind that most of the lesbian and gay parents that I know are insistent upon having multiple role models of both genders for their children, whether this be grandparents, aunts and uncles, sperm donors or surrogates, or close friends. Never mind that scientific research has shown that children of same-sex couples are as well adjusted as any others, if not more so, and professional organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, agree.

My partner comments: “So if the benefit that a child receives from a home with both a man and a woman is so great, New York will stop granting divorces if the home has a child?”

The only good news, such as it is, is that “The court did not rule that the state should not or could not allow gay marriages, only that the state constitution did not require that it allow them.” This means it’s going to be a big fight in the Legislature now. I’m thinking all of us in New York should send our legislators pictures of our children.

On a more immediate note, the Empire State Pride Agenda is holding rallies across the state today to mark the ruling.

More news and analysis as it breaks.