Live, from New York!

"Under New York’s well-established marriage recognition rule, courts historically have respected marriages performed in foreign jurisdictions unless the marriage is 'repugnant to New York public policy.' But Lambda Legal client Duke Funderburke, a retired teacher who married his partner of 43 years, Bradley Davis, in Canada, was denied spousal health benefits from the state for his partner, despite their legal marriage in Canada.

Lambda Legal argued that because all three branches of state government recognize several rights of same-sex couples, New York State has clearly demonstrated that it does not find such relationships to be 'repugnant' to public policy. During the Funderburke oral argument, the trial judge even acknowledged that the contention that marriages between same-sex couples are repugnant to public policy 'itself is repugnant.' In contradiction to all of this, though, the trial judge issued a hasty, two-page opinion stating that the recent Hernandez v. Robles (the New York State high court decision restricting marriage to different-sex couples) restricted the trial court from recognizing the valid out-of-state marriage license for the purposes of spousal health insurance benefits. Lambda Legal has filed a notice to appeal the trial court’s decision."

Lambda Legal