A Decade Of Marriage Equality In New York

 

     More than any governor in American history, Andrew Cuomo has made life wonderful for his LGBTQ constituents in the state of New York. It's been a long list of achievements. He banned conversion therapy harmful to LGBTQ youth as well as the gay panic defense used to defend the murders of citizens because of their sexual identities or orientations. He expanded New York's anti-discrimination and hate crime laws to include transgender people, ended a ban on commercial surrogacy, and legalized same-sex and joint stepchild adoption for LGBTQ couples. He restored salary and rank to New York veterans who were discharged because of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," offered a third gender option on birth certificates and IDs, and granted the right for state residents to change their legal gender without sex reassignment surgery. Transgender inmates and same-sex inmates were granted medical care and conjugal visits, LGBTQ youth were legally protected from bullying, and the work continues with bills to protect LGBTQ youth athletes, mandate LGBTQ education,  and ban invasive procedures on intersex youth. All of this was signed into law in one state in one decade.

     The defining legacy of Cuomo's on LGBTQ rights, however, has to be New York's Marriage Equality Act, which was enacted ten years ago today: July 24th, 2011. The law made New York one of few states, albeit a major one, to legalize same-sex marriage, which helped provide enough momentum for a major reversal: President Obama endorsed same-sex marriage in 2012, whereas he had refused to do so in 2008, and the majority of Americans supported the proposal for the first time. The right for all lovers to marry was secured in June 2015 in Obergefell v. Hodges. Today, we celebrate ten years of marriage equality in New York, reflect on the progress we've made, and continue our resolve to make more progress for LGBTQ Americans.