Eric Johnston, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network

Legal maneuvers by New York's attorney general and the mayor of Ithaca may make the Empire State the next legal battleground over same-sex marriage, just days ahead of a public rally in New York City in support of gay and lesbian couples. On Monday, State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, became the highest-ranking state official to back marriage rights for gay couples, in open defiance of New York's Republican governor, George Pataki