Gay Marriage Approved by New York Senate

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Here, a religious marriage has legal effect.

Not necessarily. Consider homosexual marriage, polygamy, or marriages where no one bothers to get a license and there's no common law marriage provision in the state's law.

In many states, the only aspect that gives religious marriage the power to legally marry someone is that we authorize certain people to act for the state in obtaining, filling out and filing marriage licenses.