NEW PALTZ MAYOR CONDUCTS SSM's: From the Associated Press

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. -- 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. ...

The ceremonies came a day after the state Health Department said New York's domestic relations law does not allow marriage licenses for same-sex couples. It said a clerk issuing such a license or anyone solemnizing such a marriage would be violating state law.

Department spokesman William Van Slyke said the department was requesting the injunction and also wants the attorney general's office to find the same-sex marriages in New Paltz "null and void."

West and some legal experts said they read the law differently.

"For a marriage to be legal in this state all that's required is for it to be properly solemnized by someone with authority to do so," West told the CNN cable network early Friday. "I'm fully able to do that." ...

Plattsburgh Mayor Daniel Stewart -- New York state's first and only openly gay mayor -- said he will not perform same-sex marriages.

"I believe in changing the law, but I don't believe in breaking the law in order to change it," said Stewart, a Republican.

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