Despite the passage of the gay marriage law, one town official has refused to participate. N.Y. town clerk: I won't sign gay wedding license

New York’s gay weddings victory lap has not extended to all parts of the Empire State, with a rural town clerk determined to not sign any same-sex marriage licenses.

Barbara MacEwen, the town clerk in upstate Volney who is responsible for signing marriage licenses in the town, said she’s morally opposed to same-sex weddings and does not intend to affix her signature to any marriage documents for gay or lesbian couples.


“If there’s any possible way to not do it legally, then yes, I would not want to put my name on any of those certificates or papers,” MacEwen told POLITICO. “That’s their life, they can do it, but I don’t feel I should be forced into something that’s against my morals and my God.”

MacEwen said she’s written her state senator — Republican Patty Ritchie, who voted against legalizing gay weddings — to determine her legal options.

While the legislation Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed late Friday night includes exemptions for religious organizations that disapprove of same-sex couples, it does not extend such protections to public officials.

Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

MacEwen, a 75-year-old Republican, said she will be on the ballot this fall for a fifth, full four-year term as clerk of the town of about 6,200 people.

And while clerks in New York City and elsewhere in the Empire State are preparing for a deluge of gay and lesbian couples applying for marriage licenses once they become legal July 24, MacEwen said she doesn’t expect an uptick in activity in her town, which is about 30 miles from Syracuse.

“I don’t know of anybody like that in my town,” she said. “I’m sure that there might be, but I haven’t heard about anybody.”