by Rex Wockner
National News Briefs
The New York state Assembly passed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage May 12 by a vote of 89-52.
The measure now goes to the Senate, where it may not have enough votes to pass.
"It's time for the Senate, which now has pro-equality leadership, to ensure that loving, committed same-sex couples in New York can have the same rights and responsibilities under the law as loving, committed different-sex couples," urged Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.
The Assembly previously passed a same-sex marriage bill in 2007, but it stalled in the Senate. New York law already recognizes same-sex marriages entered into in states and countries that allow them.
Gay couples can marry in Connecticut, Iowa and Massachusetts. Same-sex marriage laws will take effect later this year in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. In California, the state Supreme Court has until June 3 to decide the fate of a constitutional amendment passed by voters that halted same-sex marriages last November, five months after the state Supreme Court legalized them. Same-sex marriage also is legal in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain and Sweden.
