New York Sex Laws

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Last update:   9/7/2014

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DOM Domestic Relations

Domestic Relations Law § 170,

    §  170. Action for divorce. An action for divorce may be maintained by

  a husband or wife to  procure  a  judgment  divorcing  the  parties  and

  dissolving the marriage on any of the following grounds:

(4) The commission of an act of adultery, provided that  adultery  for

  the  purposes  of articles ten, eleven, and eleven-A of this chapter, is

  hereby defined as the commission of an act of sexual  intercourse,  oral

  sexual  conduct  or  anal  sexual  conduct, voluntarily performed by the

  defendant, with a person other than the plaintiff after the marriage  of

  plaintiff  and  defendant.  Oral  sexual conduct and anal sexual conduct

  include,  but  are  not  limited  to,  sexual  conduct  as  defined   in

  subdivision  two  of  section  130.00  and  subdivision three of section

  130.20 of the penal law.

 Penal Law § 255.17 Adultery.

Penal

  § 255.17 Adultery.

    A  person  is guilty of adultery when he engages in sexual intercourse

  with another person at a time when he has a living spouse, or the  other

  person has a living spouse.

    Adultery is a class B misdemeanor.

DOM - Domestic Relations

Article 3 - Solemnization, Proof and Effect of Marriage

10-A - Parties to a marriage.

    §  10-a.  Parties to a marriage. 1. A marriage that is otherwise valid

  shall be valid regardless of whether the parties to the marriage are  of

  the same or different sex.

    2.  No  government  treatment or legal status, effect, right, benefit,

  privilege, protection or responsibility relating  to  marriage,  whether

  deriving  from  statute,  administrative  or  court rule, public policy,

  common law or any other source of law, shall differ based on the parties

  to the marriage being or having been of  the  same  sex  rather  than  a

  different   sex.   When   necessary   to   implement   the   rights  and

  responsibilities of spouses under the law, all gender-specific  language

  or  terms  shall  be  construed  in  a gender-neutral manner in all such

  sources of law.

In 2006, New York's Court of Appeals held that New York's marriage statutes do not allow same-sex marriage, and that there is no constitutional right to same-sex marriage. Hernandez v. Robles, 7 N.Y.3d 338 (2006).[72] During his 2006 gubernatorial campaign, Eliot Spitzer said that he would push to legalize same-sex marriage if elected.[73] Governor Spitzer introduced a same-sex marriage bill in April 2007.[74] The bill was passed in the New York State Assembly on June 19, 2007, but died in the New York State Senate and was returned to the Assembly.[75] No further action was taken on that bill.[75]

A bill permitting same-sex marriage was passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo on June 24, 2011; it took effect on July 24, 2011.