State agencies in New York are going to recognize same-sex marriages performed outside the state, thanks to a decision by Gov. David Paterson. “The revisions are most likely to involve as many as 1,300 statutes and regulations in New York governing everything from joint filing of income tax returns to transferring fishing licenses between spouses,” according to the Times.

This is great news, but there are a couple of interesting things about it. One, the governor’s office issued a directive announcing the new policy on May 14 (the day before the California court decision, incidentally). Why did it take two weeks to get reported? The article states that the governor discussed the move in a videotaped message to a dinner of gay community leaders on May 17. (Here’s the video and text of the message.) So the people at the dinner knew about it. Why didn’t the Times, or any other news organization, report it until now?

The other interesting thing is the question of where the legal authority comes from. As much as I think it’s a great decision, at first it seemed odd to me that the governor could just do this unilaterally. Isn’t it such a big deal that the legislature should get involved?

But I realized it’s not. A state appellate court ruled on February 1 that there’s no reason not to recognize valid same-sex marriages performed out of state; state policy is to recognize any marriage validly performed out of state unless there’s a state law prohibiting it, and New York has no law prohibiting same-sex marriages. (Here’s the court decision.) If the legislature cared about banning same-sex marriage, it could have followed the lead of the numerous other states that have done so. But it hasn’t.

This is a beautiful move on the governor’s part. Because even though it’s a big deal for same-sex couples that want to get married, and even though it might seem like a big deal to people who think the world will fall apart if same-sex couples can get married, it’s just a run-of-the-mill policy interpretation. The governor is showing that it’s really not a big deal to just go ahead and treat people equally.

Hopefully the Republican-controlled state senate will realize this as well and stop blocking a marriage equality law.

Wow! Things can change in a week. According to a new poll, 51% of Californians are in favor of same-sex marriage, while just 42% oppose it. A slight majority also opposes amending the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage. The pollsters found that the younger you are, the more likely you are to support marriage equality.

Just last week, a poll found that 54% of voters favored changing the state constitution. So this is good news.

Here are the full poll results.

The L.A. Times did a poll on the proposed California constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage. Right now the people who support the amendment are leading, 54%-37%. Boo. But apparently, “ballot measures on controversial topics often lose support during the course of a campaign,” according to the article.

One interesting fact:

[T]he poll found that views on gay marriage were greatly influenced by personal connections. Of those who said they knew a friend, a family member or a co-worker who was gay, nearly half approved of the court’s ruling — more than twice the proportion among those who said they were not acquainted with a gay person.

The divide was as stark when it came to the proposed constitutional amendment: 70% of voters who said they did not know a gay person would vote for it, a position taken by just 49% of voters who said they knew a gay person.

If you’re a closeted Californian, please come out to your families, friends, and co-workers between now and November. Your fellow gays need you.