This entire issue would easily be ended if the state got entirely out of the “Marriage License” business and instead handed out “Domestic Partnership Licenses” to ANY two people who want to partner for life.

Marriage from a government perspective is simply a legal incorporation between two people. It provides certain rights, protections and responsibilities to the two individuals who enter into the partnership.

A homosexual partnership seeks the same legal rights and protections enjoyed in a hetero partnership. The insistence that such a partnership be called a “marriage” is useless motion that has done more to delay than it has done to resolve this issue.

Ignorance abounds on all sides of this fight.
It is my sincere hope that all sides somehow lose and continue to do so until they all come to their senses and act in the best interests of everyone.

This is a civil rights issue. Religion has nothing to do with it–and the religious organizations might want to think about how they’re alienating the younger generations with political lobbying that younger people (and some of us older people, too) see merely as bigoted meddling. The majority of voters (as has been demonstrated by recent polls) have come to realize that this is a civil rights issue, and the majority now favors marriage equality. Religions can do what they want, but all citizens deserve equal treatment by their government. It’s time for New York to get this done with and move forward.