U.S. National - AP

N.Y. Town's Mayor Continuing Gay Weddings
8 minutes ago

By MICHAEL HILL, Associated Press Writer

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. - New Paltz's mayor vowed to go ahead with up to two dozen same-sex weddings this weekend, despite being charged with 19 criminal counts and possibly facing jail time for marrying gay couples.

Meanwhile, a crowd of gay couples was expected to go to the county administration building in Portland, Ore. Wednesday after a county commissioner there said she would begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Also Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Constitution subcommittee is focusing on whether judges are overstepping their bounds and eroding traditional marriage. The panel is using the Massachusetts high court ruling permitting same-sex marriages as an impetus.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he called Wednesday's hearing to examine the "judicial invalidation of traditional marriage laws." Cornyn supports a constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

Last week, President Bush last week called on Congress to quickly pass an amendment prohibiting gay marriages.

New Paltz Mayor Jason West insisted Wednesday that it was New York's Health Department that was breaking the law by refusing to give marriage licenses to same-sex couples. "Our state constitution requires equal protection for all New Yorkers," he said on NBC's "Today Show."

West, 26, said he was motivated by civil rights and "common decency" to join the vanguard of the growing gay marriage movement, along with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

West married 25 gay couples on Friday, making this small college village 75 miles north of New York City another flash point in the national debate over gay marriage. More than 3,400 couples have been married in San Francisco; West now has about 1,000 couples on a waiting list.

West was to be in court Wednesday night to answer charges that he married 19 couples knowing they did not have marriage licenses, a violation of the state's domestic relations law. He planned to plead innocent.

"I don't plan to spend time in jail," the Green Party mayor said. "I think that the judge before whom this case will be heard will see that the constitution is clear on this, will see that our laws are clear on this and will see that these marriages are in fact legal."

The movement appears to be gaining steam. In Oregon, Multnomah County Chair Diane Linn directed the county to begin issuing such licenses, after consulting with the county attorney, but without an official vote from the four other county commissioners.

The head of an Oregon gay rights group said a crowd of gay couples would go to the county administration building in Portland on Wednesday for the licenses. A county judge said she was ready to conduct the weddings.

"Many of these couples have been waiting decades, and this is the first time they've been seen as equal under the law," said Roey Thorpe, executive director of Basic Rights Oregon.

In New Paltz, the mayor was charged with a misdemeanor and the punishment could run from a $25 to $500 fine or jail time. Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams said a jail term wasn't being contemplated at this point.

The district attorney, who does not have the legal authority to issue an injunction preventing the ceremonies, held out the possibility that state officials or the town judge could intervene to stop West from carrying out any more weddings.

Williams said the misdemeanor complaint lists 19 charges — instead of 25 for the number of weddings performed — because police at the scene provided eyewitness accounts of only 19 ceremonies. He said he could add counts if West marries more couples.

The state Health Department last week said New York's domestic relations law bars the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples and that New York courts have recognized only marriages between men and women. Critics say that is unconstitutional.

* Picture: New York Paltz Village Mayor Jason West is shown Friday, Feb. 27, 2004, outside the village hall in New Paltz, N.Y., where he married 25 gay couples. According to Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams, West faces 19 separate counts of solemnizing a marriage with a license, a misdemeanor under the domestic relations law. (AP Photo/Jim McKnight)