More gay marriages in New Paltz, NY

"What we're witnessing in America today is the flowering of the largest civil rights movement the country's had in a generation." - Jason West

There's big news coming out of New Paltz, NY.

It seems that yet another town is granting marriage to same-sex couples. This is indeed wonderful news. It's great to see courageous people stand up to injustice. On this day, twenty-one gay couples exchanged wedding vows on the steps of village hall.

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. (AP) - Twenty-one gay couples exchanged wedding vows on the steps of village hall Friday in a spirited ceremony that opened another front on the growing national debate over gay marriage.

As the ceremonies by 26-year-old Mayor Jason West were ending, the state Health Department asked the attorney general to seek an injunction "to prevent further illegal conduct by the mayor," a department spokesman said.

A call to Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office was not immediately returned.

West, elected on the Green Party ticket last year in this village 75 miles north of New York City, joined Gavin Newsom of San Francisco as the country's only mayors to marry same-sex couples.

"What we're witnessing in America today is the flowering of the largest civil rights movement the country's had in a generation," West said. (story)