Opposition already is forming to Gov. David Paterson’s directive that all New York state agencies immediately recognize gay marriages performed in other states and countries.

Gays in this state say that as tax-paying, law-abiding New Yorkers, they should not be denied the more than 1,300 rights automatically accorded to heterosexual married couples.

They and their advocates say they will keep pressing for New York state to make gay marriage legal, adding that they believe the outcry will lessen every time a state gives its approval to gay marriage.

Nyack’s Mayor John Shields — who with his partner and four other gay couples sued the town of Orangetown in 2004 over the denial of marriage licenses — hailed the Paterson decision.

“If you look at the progression of things, as more and more states like California go about this, there’s less and less reaction,” Shields said on Thursday. “In Massachusetts, the state has not fallen apart. Everything is going on as it has been. Families are still intact … .”

Opposition from religious leaders has focused on Biblical teachings. The Rev. Allen Kemp of Suffern Presbyterian Church did not support the Paterson directive.

“I think many in the gay community would welcome this, but as a clergy person who believes in the scripture, I don’t think it’s a good decision,” Kemp said.

Massachusetts is the only U.S. state that recognizes same-sex marriage.

Other jurisdictions that permit same-sex marriages include Canada, South Africa, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands, the Associated Press said.

California is set to begin issuing marriage licenses to gay couples beginning June 17.

Nine years before he successfully argued the Brown v. the Board of Education case that led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s desegregation of public schools, Thurgood Marshall argued a similar matter in Hillburn.

As chief counsel for the NAACP, Marshall visited Rockland to press for the integration of the Main School, the facility for white students, and the Brook School, a four-room wooden structure for children of color. That school had no library, gymnasium or indoor bathroom.

The Hillburn case didn’t have to go to the Supreme Court. In 1943, New York’s commissioner of education ordered the Brook School closed and that all children attend the Main School. His action was based on Marshall’s petition. Marshall would go on to become the first black U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

The two cases come to mind because the last surviving member of the original landmark Brown case — which centered on the segregation of schools in Topeka, Kan. — has died.

Zelma Henderson was 88. She died May 20, six weeks after a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, according to various news reports.

The Associated Press said that as a child in the 1920s and ‘30s, Henderson had attended desegregated schools in the rural western Kansas town of Oakley, where her parents farmed. She was disgusted when she learned that her own children would be required to attend segregated schools in Topeka, and signed on to the Brown litigation on behalf of her children in 1950.

“I wanted my children to know all races like I did,” Henderson told the AP in 2004. “It means a lot to a person’s outlook on life. No inferiority complex at all – that’s what I wanted for my children as far as race was concerned.”

America’s currency may have to be modified following a federal appeals court ruling today that said the blind and visually impaired are discriminated against by the format of paper currency.
“This is an important victory for people who are blind and visually impaired,” said Mark Richert, director of public policy for the American Council of the Blind, told the Associated Press. “We … look forward to the day when people with vision loss have as reliable access to paper money as everyone else.”

The council had sued the government for changes to paper money to allow different denominations to be more easily distinguished by the blind and visually impaired. Changes have been made in Canada and Europe that allows bills to be distinguished by touch.

But the ruling hasn’t met with favor by everyone.

National Federation of the Blind President, Dr. Marc Maurer, said: “Today’s ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is profoundly misguided and may unintentionally do real harm to blind Americans. Hundreds of thousands of blind people use paper money every day without difficulty. We hope that this ruling will not have the unintended consequence of reinforcing society’s misconception that blind people are unable to function in the world as it currently is. Identifying items by touch (including currency) is convenient, but not essential to blind people being able to participate fully in society.”

The AP says 3.7 million persons in the U.S. are visually impaired, according to a National Academy of Sciences study cited by the court, and of them, 200,000 persons have no vision at all.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations today “repudiated” the use of Islam’s most holy book as target practice by a U.S. soldier who has been removed from his position in Baghdad.

According to the Associated Press, U.S. commanders moved swiftly to avert a crisis after the sniper was found to have riddled a copy of the Quran with bullets.

The AP said the incident had the potential to inflame Muslim opinion against the U.S. military and compromise the delicate alliance it has been forging with Sunni Arab communities against religious extremists.

Local leaders accepted an apology from senior U.S. commanders, and the military said Sunday that the soldier responsible had been disciplined and pulled from Iraq, the AP further reported.

CAIR’s statement reads: “We repudiate this individual’s hateful act, recognizing it is an isolated incident that does not represent our men and women in uniform, the overwhelming majority of whom serve our nation with honor and respect.

“We commend the U.S. military’s swift investigation and the apology by commanders in Iraq. In an effort to prevent such disturbing incidents from happening again, we call on the military to revisit its cultural training policies,” the statement continued.

CAIR is based in Washington, and operates an educational project called “Explore the Quran,” which was launched following allegations of Quran desecration by U.S. military personnel at prisons in Guantanamo Bay.

Mildred Jeter, known to all as “Bean” because she was tall and slim, and Richard Loving, were childhood sweethearts in Virginia. They got married in 1958, and she was already pregnant with the first of their three children.

There was only one problem. Jeter was black, and Loving was white.

The couple had married in the District of Colombia, but anti-miscegenation laws in their home state didn’t recognize their union, and they were prosecuted and forced to leave Virginia.

Their legal challenge eventually led to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning laws banning interracial marriage, but not before the couple faced tremendous hardship, including being arrested for traveling together.

Mildred Loving died on Friday. Her husband died in a car accident in 1975. She never re-married.

Every year, The Loving Day campaign encourages interracial couples to celebrate the June 12, 1967 anniversary of the Loving vs. Virginia decision.

There are more than 4 million interracial couples nationwide, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

For more about the Lovings’ story, see this article in the Los Angeles Times.

Many people mistakenly think Cinco de Mayo is Mexico’s Independence Day. (It’s not. That day is Sept. 16.)Cinco de Mayo actually commemorates Mexicans’ victory over the French army at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Mexico had accumulated heavy debts to several nations, and France, eager to add to its empire at that time, invaded to recover the debt and establish leadership in Mexico. A small Mexican army led by Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin defeated the French.  Although is it acknowledged nationwide, Cinco de Mayo is really celebrated with special events mainly in the Mexican state of Puebla.Of course, the holiday gaining more popularity in America, where it is increasingly associated with mariachis, margaritas and parties. About 2,700 Rockland residents are from Mexico, according to the 2000 census. An estimated 10 percent of Rockland’s roughly 286,000 residents are Hispanic.  Cinco de Mayo is Spanish for ‘Fifth of May.’