Two state courts dash gays' hope for quick change in law

Recent victories in state courts led some gay rights advocates to hope -- and opponents to fear -- that a right to same-sex marriages could be established with swift judicial action. The New York Court of Appeals' decision Thursday suggests otherwise. In most states the eventual resolution of the issue seems likely to come from legislators, not from appellate judges finding previously unrecognized rights in state constitutions.

In rejecting the claim that not permitting same-sex marriages was unconstitutional discrimination, the N.Y. court offered some sensible and some bizarre speculations about why legislators might favor traditional marriages. One theory cited by the majority centered on the assertion that opposite-sex couples can have children on impulse or by accident, while same-sex couples had to plan to do so. The court mused that therefore opposite-sex parents needed the legal benefits conferred by marriage in order to stabilize their union, while the presumably more stable same-sex couples didn't. Huh?

A Supreme Court ruling in Georgia the same day brought another setback. It approved a state referendum that banned not only same-sex marriages but same-sex legal unions as well. The legal challengers contended that the wording unlawfully required voters to decide two issues with one vote.

Though same-sex marriage is legal only in Massachusetts, there are signs that America is becoming more accepting of same-sex unions. Last month a survey found more than half the nation's largest corporations now extend health insurance to employees' same-sex domestic partners and 86 percent of Fortune 500 companies have policies against discrimination based on sexual orientation. In a unanimous decision in June, the Arkansas Supreme Court struck down a state regulation that banned gay people from serving as foster parents.

Judges' refusal to recognize a right to same-sex marriage doesn't alter the fact that same-sex unions are here to stay. As the public becomes more aware of the inequities facing same-sex couples, support grows for sensible and just laws regarding them.

Most Americans don't favor same-sex marriages, but they do favor equitable treatment of same-sex couples. The best way for that to happen is for state legislatures to create an equitable system of recognizing such unions.

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