New York City Council Speaker Gifford Miller (D) has demanded that Mayor Michael Bloomberg allow homosexual couples to marry in New York City.

According to CNS News, Miller stood on the steps of City Hall during a rally and said he is against the proposed federal marriage amendment.

Bloomberg should "immediately instruct the city clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples," Miller said. "It is simply wrong that lesbian and gay couples who make commitments to one another don't have the same rights as my wife and I do."

The Mayor's spokesperson, Ed Skyler, said that the city clerk will continue to follow the law of the state of New York, which does not permit gay marriages.

"Advocates for gay marriage should spend their time persuading Albany to change the law, rather than calling on the city clerk to break it," Skyler said.

New Paltz Mayor Jason West violated state law and sanctioned the marriage of nearly three dozen same-sex couples last week.

A full-page ad sponsored by some pro-family groups appeared in several major newspapers, encouraging Americans to stand for marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said a constitutional amendment is the only way to "stop the tyrannical stampede toward gay marriage."

Gay rights advocates see the issue as a civil rights issue.

"The people who would forbid gays from marrying in this country are those who would have made Rosa Parks sit in the back of the bus," said Mayor West.

A recent CBS News poll showed 59 percent of Americans in favor of a constitutional amendment for traditional marriage.