Gay Rights advocates step up lobbying Traveling photo album puts human touch to fight for same-sex marriage
Posted on February 24, 2007
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RoseAnn Hermann has gathered some snapshots for a photo album meant for the eyes of the New York Legislature: her parents’ wedding, her in-laws’ wedding, her own wedding, and her grown son, standing with the man he wants to legally marry.
She and others around the state are compiling the family photos to show support for giving New York’s same-sex couples the right to marriage. “When all is said and done, we want everything for our kids that we have,” said Hermann, who lives in Larchmont. “This is something I cannot give my kids. This is something I need our legislators to do for them.”
The traveling photo album will be taken to Albany for a lobbying day in May. About 30 to 40 local entries are going on display Monday at Cosi Restaurant in New Rochelle, and will remain there over the next month. An opening reception is planned for Monday night by the Empire State Pride Agenda and The Loft organization in White Plains.
Hermann said she purposely added photos of family and friends in a way that doesn’t distinguish between gay and straight. The images are intended to put a very personal face on a highly contentious political issue, and to highlight the numbers of friends and relatives who support the cause.
“It’s so easy to discriminate when you don’t put a face to the individual,” said Robert Voorheis, the co-executive director of Marriage Equality NY, which advocates marriage rights for same-sex couples. “This album is not just an album of gays and lesbians. It also has supporting families and straight people who are all committed to having relationships honored for same-sex couples. And I think that’s a wonderful thing.”
Massachusetts is the only state to allow same-sex couples to marry. New Jersey this week joined Connecticut and Vermont in offering civil unions, which provide the legal benefits of marriage under a different name. California offers similar benefits through domestic partnerships.
Voorheis and his partner, Michael Sabatino, were married in Canada in 2003. Such marriages generally do not carry over international or state borders, though. New Jersey will recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere as civil unions, essentially demoting their significance, Voorheis and Sabatino said. Read more….
Source: The NY Journal News
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