Monroe County Drops Gay Marriage Challenge

Officials of Monroe County, an upstate New York county have decided not to challenge a court ruling stating that a lesbian couple’s marriage in Canada should be recognized in New York.

The Monroe County officials have stated they would abide by an appeals court decision in February that Monroe Community College should extend health benefits to an employee’s lesbian partner.

Patricia Martinez, a word processing supervisor at the college, brought a suit against school in 2005, because they had granted benefits to heterosexual married couples but denied them to Martinez and her partner, Lisa Ann Golden. The couple formalized their relationship in a civil union ceremony in Vermont in 2001 and were married in Canada in 2004.