Moshe Zemer Rabbis should check the ramifications of such marriages in the state or country in which they serve. The license to marry is received from the state. Does this fact carry any responsibility to the law of the state that forbids or does not recognize the marriage? As of this writing, no state of the Union has enacted legislation permitting the marriage of a same-sex couple. A number of acts and ordinances have been passed to grant certain rights and measures of equality, but no nuptials. Thirty states have passed or are in the process of enacting legislation to prevent same-sex marriages from
being performed either in their jurisdiction or elsewhere.”
Perhaps the greatest stumbling block to gay marriage was the passage of a bill in the United States Congress entitled the Defense of Marriage Act, which was signed into law in 1996. Among its provisions of this Federal Bill is Section 7:“In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States , the word“marriage” means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word“spouse” refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.” The House passed the Defense of Marriage Act on July 12, 1996 by an overwhelming 342-67. The Senate followed suit on September 10, by a vote of 85-14. President Clinton signed it into law.”
Some European countries have passed legislation to establish the status of same-sex couples. In 1989, Denmark became the first country to legalize same-sex unions. Although the legal ceremony creates a legal bond, it is not the same as marriage between men and women; gay and lesbian couples were not granted access to adoption, artificial insemination, in-vitro fertilization, or church weddings. The other Nordic states more or less followed the Danish precedent. No European country has fully recognized gay marriage, even those countries that arrange for an official domestic union for the couple.
What about the above question of the New York rabbi who asked whether he may marry such a couple in a state where it is prohibited. Solomon B. Freehof dealt with a question about a different matter, which nonetheless reveals a similar principle. An elderly couple who were living together asked a rabbi to officiate at their wedding without registering it with the civil authorities.