GENESEO, NY -- Opponents of New York's gay marriage law are suing to overturn it one day after weddings began.
A representative of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms and a rabbi say in a lawsuit filed Monday in state court that New York's Senate violated its own procedures and the state's open meetings law when it approved the bill on June 24.
Among other things, the lawsuit claims the Senate prevented lawmakers who opposed the bill from speaking. The suit also says the Senate didn't follow procedures that require a bill to go through appropriate committees before a full Senate vote.
Opponents of New York's gay marriage law had promised lawsuits. Do you think these suits have merit?
Spokesmen for Senate Republicans and the State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman declined to comment.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of hundreds of same-sex marriages across New York State on Sunday, after the marriage law went into effect at midnight. Among those married were numerous couples in Syracuse, and others around the state in cities including Niagara Falls, Albany, and New York City. Officials in Niagara Falls say they hope the ceremony will help the city perched on one of the world's great natural wonders recapture its storied identity as the world's "Honeymoon Capital."
Sunday afternoon, approximately one hundred people gathered in Syracuse's Clinton Square to protest the same-sex marriage law. Attendees there said New Yorkers should have been able to voice their opinion on the subject by voting on it, instead of leaving it up to the governor and legislature. The day's celebrations were also tempered by a protest in New York City, where thousands of opponents marched to the United Nations building.
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Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
