[ellery]

That's a fair argument...but then, by that logic, shouldn't New York be able to legalize gay marriage? Currently, the federal Defense of Marriage act prohibits that.

[Eva]

Marriage crosses state boundaries and involves federal programs, therefore comes under the juridiction of the federal gov't. If New York wants to legalized gay marriages withing the boundaries of New York, that would not be valid for social security or welfare purposes and would not be valid outside the state of New York, they could probably do that, but they probably shouldn't call it a marriage.