FROM THE ACLU:

Today we lost our effort to open marriage to same-sex couples in New York State. It was a 4-2 decision at the state's highest court, where four different marriage lawsuits had been consolidated, including ours and Lambda Legal's.

The majority opinion said that there were at least two reasons the state could rationally exclude us from marriage. First, it adopted a rationale advanced by NYS Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Pointing out that stable relationships between parents are important for children, that straight couples can have kids by "accident," and that gay couples must plan their children in advance, the court reasoned that straight couples who parent are less stable than gay couples who parent and therefore need the stability of marriage, whereas gay couples do not. So all of the anti-gay stereotypes we've been living with for so long have now been turned on their head -- suddenly we're responsible parents in stable relationships with no need for the stability that marriage could bring.

Second, the majority said that the legislature could think that kids will do better with a mom and a dad. Amazingly, this is precisely the argument that the Arkansas Supreme Court rejected last week, recognizing that the social science makes crystal clear that kids do just as well when raised by gay people as when raised by straight folks. Who would have thought that New York was behind Arkansas on this issue?