Suffolk ruling gives boost to gay marriage

A divorce ruling by a Suffolk County judge is the latest decision in a growing list of New York rulings to recognize same-sex marriages carried out in other states.

Last week, Acting Supreme Court Justice John Kelly applied the state's common-law marriage recognition rule to grant an uncontested divorce between "S.M." and "C.R.," married in Connecticut in 2009. Connecticut legalized same-sex marriage in 2008.

The judge noted it was "not novel" to recognize the couple's same-sex marriage, legal in another state, to grant divorce. Several courts had concluded out-of-state, same-sex marriages can be recognized in New York.

Separately, two justices at State Supreme Court in Manhattan granted divorces to same-sex couples in 2008. And in 2009, the state Court of Appeals upheld in a 4-3 decision a county executive and state agency's decision to recognize same-sex marriage. The court avoided directly addressing the extent of recognition to which same-sex couples are entitled.

In last week's decision, Kelly wrote, "At this point, the New York Legislature has not expressly prohibited the recognition of valid out-of-state same-sex marriages in New York."

The absence of such legislation "and the prevailing public policy towards same-sex partners in the state of New York compels this court to recognize the parties' marriage," he ruled.

A bill allowing same-sex couples to marry passed in the Assembly but failed in the Senate last year. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo this year committed to efforts to advance it.

Three state senators have introduced a bill to stop the state from recognizing same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, but they have yet to secure a sponsor in the Assembly. Senate Majority spokesman Scott Reif declined to comment Saturday.

Susan Sommer, senior counsel and director of constitutional litigation for Lambda Legal, who represented the couples in the 2009 case, said rulings such as Kelly's follow "an already well-trod path" in New York courts -- as well as decisions by several state governors and local governments -- that respect out-of-state marriages' legality.

"What Justice Kelly did in this case was apply that now-settled law in the context of a divorce," she said. "The irony is that same-sex couples can take a train across New York's borders, have a wedding, come home married, and have their marriages respected, but still can't marry in their own hometowns."