That New York state would eventually join the increasing number of those in the US to allow same-sex marriage was of little question.  We here at The Revealer have never been ones to uphold marriage as worthy of protection by the state because we'll never be convinced that it's the state's business to regulate how we partner, love, have sex, or procreate.  But we love equal rights.  And we do like religious exemptions--for the most part--of which this bill has several.  These in particular protect religious institutions from legal address if they refuse to marry gays.  You can read the exemptions here, but it will be hard to do so without thinking about miscegenation laws that not so long ago regulated marriage between blacks and whites.  What makes these laws different from, say, exemptions for Anabaptists from military service or health care insurance?  We'll have to get back to you with specifics on that but perhaps it has something to do with how a clergyman acts as a representative of the state when sanctioning marriage?