SOLIDARITY PROTEST: Manhattan Borough President To Marry Out Of State

Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer and his fiance will marry in Connecticut in protest of New York's unfair marriage law.

After five decades of municipal fidelity, Mr. Stringer is refusing to do something rather momentous in the city of his birth: marry. He and his fiancée, Elyse Buxbaum, have decided to wed in Connecticut this year in what they described as a protest of New York’s failure to legalize gay marriage. In the half year since the New York State Senate defeated a bill to allow same-sex marriage, a parade of politicians have proclaimed their anger at the inability of gay couples to marry in the state. But Mr. Stringer, a potential candidate for mayor in 2013, may be the first to boycott New York’s marriage bureau — an act that he hopes will encourage his constituents (and fellow lawmakers) to get married in states like Connecticut, Vermont and Massachusetts that have sanctioned gay marriage. “This gives Elyse and I a chance to take personal responsibility,” Mr. Stringer, 50, said at a coffee shop on the Upper East Side as Ms. Buxbaum, 38, sat next to him. “If enough people who have somewhat of a profile — not just politicians, but artists and business leaders — start going into Massachusetts or Connecticut and show New York how embarrassing it is that you can’t get a marriage license for same-sex couples, then we will change things.”

Stringer says the out-of-state wedding was suggested to him by controversial gay activist Allen Roskoff.