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Let
Us Eat
Times
are tough for Hunger Action Network of New York State.
Dwindling state and federal funding and an ever-more competitive
grant market have led to a number of personnel and program
cuts over the past few years at one of New York’s largest
statewide anti-hunger groups. With Hunger Action finding itself
more reliant on volunteers and individual donations, its executive
director, Mark Dunlea, is hoping for a big turnout at the
group’s annual fund-raising event, Feast for Famine, taking
place at 5:30 PM Wednesday (May 25) at the Egg in Empire State
Plaza.
“Not
only is it a good fund-raising event for us, but a great networking
event where we hope to interest potential volunteers in our
program,” Dunlea said. “In terms of volunteering, we have
everything from hands-on work where people can go and help
with the gardens, but we’re also looking for people to come
into the office and help, from data entry [to] stuffing envelopes.”
Feast for Famine will offer food and beverage samples from
more than two dozen restaurants and microbreweries in the
area. The event is cosponsored by CSEA, Public Employees Federation,
Albany Public School Teachers Association, and NYS Nurses
Association, along with the Times Union, Troy Record,
FLY92 and Metroland.
Dunlea said Hunger Action Network uses the funds from the
event to support—through legislative lobbying or directly
through various hunger and nutrition programs—the 40,000 individuals
who use food pantries locally each month. Founded in 1982,
Hunger Action Network is a statewide membership organization
of direct food providers, advocates and other individuals
trying to end hunger and its root causes, including poverty,
throughout New York state.
—Travis
Durfee
Mass
Marriage
Couples
were overcome with joy, many clearly moved by the magnitude
of being in the first wave of Americans to be legally granted
marriage licenses as same-sex couples. Many had never let
themselves believe their day would come, but on Monday (May
17), more than 1,000 same-sex couples got marriage licenses
in Massachusetts.
In Cambridge, where some 250 couples had lined up overnight,
the doors to City Hall opened just after midnight so the paperwork
could start. The sloping lawn outside City Hall was filled
with exuberant supporters there to witness the historic events;
protesters were largely absent. Inside, the banister was draped
with white tulle and cake was laid out in the City Council’s
chambers to accentuate the matrimonial atmosphere.
After getting licenses, many couples went directly to probate
courts to obtain waivers letting them circumvent the normal
three-day waiting period before exchanging vows.
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who opposes same-sex marriage,
warned clerks they would face legal action if they licensed
couples who are not from Massachusetts, citing a 1913 law
prohibiting the licensing couples if the marriage would not
be legal in their home state. But clerks in Worcester, Springfield,
Provincetown and Somerville are defying the governor and issuing
licenses to any couple asking. Romney is seeking an injunction
against the clerks from those locales and has requested copies
of all licenses issued there. The first couple who were married
in Williamstown are from Canaan, N.Y.; those newlyweds hope
to relocate to Massachusetts.
Romney wrote all governors and attorneys general in the country,
saying Massachusetts would not marry couples from other states
unless states provided with a statement that the marriage
would be legal in the home state. Last week, New York Attorney
General Eliot Spitzer’s office sent Romney his informal opinion
from March, part of which stated that marriages and unions
performed elsewhere would likely be legal in New York. On
Monday, Connecticut’s and Rhode Island’s attorneys general
issued opinions echoing Spitzer’s.
But those opinions do not afford the marriages ironclad legal
status in states like New York, where same-sex marriage is
not explicitly illegal. Legislation or judicial verdicts are
still necessary.
“Ultimately
these issues are going to be determined in courts in New York,”
said Mark Violette, a spokesperson for Spitzer’s office. “There’s
a presumption under New York law,” Violette added, “that we
in New York recognize legal marriages performed in other states,
even though we may not have the same form of marriage in our
state.”
Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court ruled in November that
same-sex couples have the right to marry. After deadlock and
debate, the Massachusetts Legislature is working on a constitutional
amendment that would ban same-sex marriage while legalizing
civil unions. The earliest the amendment would be put to the
state’s voters is 2006, though many couples will be married
before then. In the meantime, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
is the first place where same-sex couples can marry in America,
making our nation one of four countries in the world where
it is legal.
—Ashley
Hahn
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Columns
& Opinions
