Rev. Dawn Sangray (left) and Rev. Kay Greenleaf (right)
are joined by another Unitarain Universalist minister to
perform more wedding ceremonies in New Paltz.

When New Paltz, N.Y. Mayor Jason West stood before a crowd in Peace Park on Feb. 27, and announced to the world's media that he was going to perform legally recognized marriage ceremonies for 25 gay and lesbian couples, he changed the lives of many people.

While 25 couples were married by West that crisp winter day, Unitarian Universalist Minister, Rev. Kay Greenleaf and her partner of 17 years, Pat Sullivan, had not been able to marry
that Friday.

Instead, after New York Justice Vincent Bradley issued a temporary restraining order against the 26-year-old mayor, on March 5, stopping West from conducting any more ceremonies, Rev. Greenleaf decided to conduct ceremonies for other couples who waited to marry.

She said that while she had conducted many religious holy union or commitment ceremonies, she considered the marriages she would perform now to be legally recognized by New York .She rallied other minister to join with her. Dawn Sangrey, a pastor in Mohegan Lake, N.Y., a heterosexual married woman with children, showed up the following Saturday to perform marriages, starting with marrying Kay and Pat.

First, Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams charged Mayor West with violating New York marriage laws, because he conducted ceremonies without valid marriage licenses. Then, Williams shocked even New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer when he charged the ministers with violating New York marriage laws. Williams said in a written statement that the charges arose solely because the ministers performed the ceremonies under authority vested in them by the state, rather than performing religious ceremonies.

The ministers were arraigned in New Paltz on March 22, and supporters held a rally in front of the Village Hall. The rally was organized by the newly formed New Paltz Equality Initiative, which was started by New Paltz College Queer Student Union leaders, Wazina Zodon, Jessica Marzigliano, and James Fallarino, along with LaFevre Bed and Breakfast owners Charles Clement and Maurice Zinken. NPEI took over the growing list of people who wanted to be married, and set up the place and time for future weddings.

Even with the criminal charges hanging over them, Greenleaf and Sangrey continued conducting marriage ceremonies. Now they had support from ministers of many denominations. Five ministers conducted ceremonies for 16 couples at Justine and Philip Leger's Bridgecreek catering company in Gardiner. Justine said that while the couple hosts many ceremonies at their company she "didn't expect to see all the happiness."

Unitarian Universalist Minister, Rev. Charles Bluestein Orman drove up from New Jersey, he said, "I'll go a long way to celebrate love." As a colleague of Rev. Greenleaf, he believed it is "important for a straight male minister to be here," to let people know "the churches embraces the sanctity of love and faith."

April 24, Sangrey and Greenleaf, along with a nondenominational minister, conducted marriage ceremonies for ten couples.

NPEI announced on its web page the "Summer of Love" when ceremonies will be performed at the LaFevre Bed and Breakfast every other Saturday starting May 22 through Aug. 28. About 100 marriages have been conducted so far. More than 1000 people were on the list to be married.