New York lesbian, Kitty Lambert, marries a stranger to uncover how backward the law really is.

Well, thank goodness, Kitty Lambert is preserving the Sanctity of Marriage! New York State can proudly say that it refused a loving, committed couple a marriage license, but will legally bind two strangers—as long as they have forty dollars and the correct sets of genitalia.

Lambert and her partner, Cheryl, went into the Buffalo city clerk’s office on Valentine’s Day to get married. Lambert carefully explained that they had been committed for many years, that they had children and grandchildren, that they were upstanding community members, that they had all of the necessary paperwork and the money for the fee. Lambert explained precisely why she needed the document, and exactly which legal services it afforded that she wanted—including the right to see her partner in a hospital situation. Cheryl, she explained to the clerk, has cancer.

But Kitty Lambert can’t marry Cheryl under New York State Law. So instead, she married Ed.

Who? 

Exactly. Ed is the same age as one of Kitty’s grandkids. Ed has a German last name. Ed was one half of another gay couple that came to get married on Valentine’s day. This is all the information I gleaned about Ed from the ten-minute video released of the event. This is all the information about Ed that Kitty had before they signed a paper that recognized their blissful, lawful, union.

It has caused a stir, to say the least.  Namely, because in one fell swoop, Lambert has reified the idea that marriage is a legal fixture—not a religious one. She pointed out that there are many churches in Buffalo that would marry her and Cheryl if only the clerk would give them the document.

Now, Lambert acknowledged that it wasn’t the clerk’s fault, and to her credit, the clerk seemed pretty sympathetic to the protest. However, I don’t think it’s empty activism. This is a direct and visible response to the New York State Same-Sex Marriage bill, which was voted down by the state senate in December. In fact, seems to me that Kitty Lambert’s protest is a kind of homage to the speech made by Senator Diane Savino during the bill hearing, in which Savino pointed out to a young man at a stoplight that they could go get married right then and not have to defend their commitment to anyone.

Maybe soon, New York will sort this out. Maybe the whole nation will get their act together. At the moment, though, I believe congratulations are in order!