Despite risk, New York same-sex couples plan to marry in California

Perhaps 12,000 New York same-sex couples are heading to California to marry where same-sex marriage will be allowed starting June 17, 2008.

The following excerpts are from Andrea Stone, N.Y. gays dash to altar via Calif., USA Today, June 9, 2008, at 3A:

More than 12,000 same-sex couples from New York are expected to marry in California within the next three years, says a report today by UCLA’s Williams Institute, which studies sexual orientation issues.

Unlike a projected 55,000 gay couples from other states whose marriages will be mostly symbolic, New Yorkers expect to have legal standing on matters such as inheritance and taxes.

That’s because after California’s Supreme Court last month overturned a ban on same-sex marriage, New York Gov. David Paterson instructed state agencies to recognize all marriages, including those of gay couples, legally performed in other jurisdictions.

Those include Canada, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, South Africa and nearby Massachusetts, the first state to legalize same-sex marriage — but only for residents and those from states where it isn’t illegal.

Gay rights advocates are unsure whether New York’s unique situation will allow residents to marry in Massachusetts, but California looks clear — at least until November, when Californians will vote on whether to amend the state constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage. * * *

Some wonder what their marriage license will be worth if Californians vote down same-sex unions. * * *

Richard Burns, executive director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York’s Greenwich Village, notes that Paterson’s order applies only to executive agencies under his authority, not the courts. Among the unresolved legal questions: If a couple decides to divorce, could they do it in a New York court? Or would they have to split in California, which requires couples to live in the state for six months before filing for divorce?