New York Divorce Report - New York's Divorce and Family Law Blog

Massachusetts will soon allow same sex couples from other states to wed reports theSteven Ballard in the Massachusetts Divorce & Family Law Blog. As I previously reported, while New York will not allow same sex couples to wed, it will recognize as valid, marriages performed in jurisdictions that allow same sex marriage. I guess New England will soon become a popular wedding andhoneymoon destination for New York’s same sex couples.... More

Governor David Paterson must be a follower of this blog. I have written several times in the recent past about  decisions in which the courts have recognized the validity of same sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions. Now, the Governor has issued an directive requiring all New York State agencies to offer gay couples, wed in jurisdictions that allow same sex marriage (like Canada, Massachusetts and now California), the same legal rights as enjoyed by heterosexual couples. According to the New York Times, “The revisions are most likely to involve as many as 1,300 statutes and regulations in New York... More

A New York appeals court unanimously ruled that a gay couple's marriage in Canada should be recognized in New York. As pointed out in the Sui Generis-a New York Law Blog, at issue in Martinez v. County of Monroe was whether Monroe Community College properly denied health care benefits to the female partner of a female student. The MCC student had previously married her partner in Canada. The New York Legal Update fills in some more of the relevant facts: On July 5, 2004, the plaintiff Patricia Martinez married her same-sex partner, Lisa Ann Golden, in the Province of Ontario,... More