Noted divorce attorney Steve Gildin says he supports the passage of a bill which legalizes same-sex marriage in New York State. He said the bill’s passage means same-sex couples will enjoy equal rights and can address legal issues in a New York State court without the burden of having to prove the legality of their marriage.

New York State joins Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and the District of Columbia in legalizing same-sex marriages. According to the Williams Institute, a think tank run out of the University of California at Los Angeles, there are an estimated 42,000 same-sex couples in New York, of which 9,000 are married.

Before the bill became law, Mr. Gildin said, same-sex couples who were married in another state before moving to New York had to establish that their marriage was legal elsewhere before receiving the court’s help regarding custody, property distribution and spousal support.

“If they failed to prove that their marriage was legal in another state, then the door to the justice system was slammed shut in their face,” he said. “Now these folks are to be welcomed into the courts with the open arms that every resident of the state deserves.”

As for same-sex couples having to go to the courts to settle their disputes, Mr. Gildin noted, “Hopefully they won’t need that assistance for a long time, if ever, but with the overall divorce rate hovering around 40%, one would expect the need to arise before long. And now people in same-sex marriages will be treated the same as everyone else when it comes to the justice system. It is a great day for human rights indeed.”