New York racing regulators are set to update equine rule provisions to bring them into compliance with the state’s new marriage equality law.
Staff of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board went through thousands of lines of state racing laws and rules to identify provisions that, in the words of one memo, "could give the appearance of unequal treatment of persons in a different-sex and same-sex marriage."
The changes, due to be approved by the NYSRWB Feb. 29, do not alter the overall intent of the various rules but are intended to match up with the purposes of the marriage equality law passed into law last June at the state Capitol. Gone are what appear to be decades-old provisions that refer specifically to “husband and wife" in statutes pertaining to everything from equine licenses to suspensions.
In one rule change, for example, the reference to “husband and wife" pertaining to stockholders in a corporation obtaining a racing license would be changed to “persons married to each other."
