admin @ Mon, 2005-10-17 11:00
Schenectady residents Tuggle and Alvis are one of 13 same-sex couples whose appeal of a court decision denying them the right to marry will be argued today efore the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court.
"It's all about love," Tuggle says. "Everyone dreams of growing up, falling in love and getting married. We just want the same thing as everyone else. That's being able to recognize the person you're going to spend the rest of your life with."
Their case against the state Health Department was thrown out in December, after state Supreme Court Justice Joseph C. Teresi ruled that Domestic Relations Law is constitutional in allowing marriage only between a man and a woman.
Teresi upheld the controversial statute despite impassioned arguments that the law denies due process, freedom of speech and equal protection under the law based on gender and sexual orientation.
"This is not a case about abstract principles," says Kaplan, who will argue the case today. "It's about real people living real lives and not being able to enjoy the real rights and benefits that are expected by most married couples.
"It's about being able to get health insurance and the remains of a partner when they die," she said. "All they want is to go to bed at night and sleep soundly, not worrying about the security of their family."
Massachusetts became the first state in the union to allow same-sex marriages in 2004, under a court order. California was next this September. But then its governor vetoed it.
At the time, it's president, Matt Staver, lauded New York's "obvious interest" in preserving traditional marriage. He said it has the right "to prefer the best family arrangement for children and society."
James Essex, a lawyer with the ACLU's Lesbian & Gay Rights Project in New York, will be in court today with Kaplan, Tuggle, Alvis and the others.
"We're talking about people who are concretely harmed by this law," Essex asserts. "But everybody realizes that if we win in the Third Department, or if we lose, the case will ultimately be decided by the Court of Appeals. And that's how it should be."
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