Michael Benjamin, who represented the Bronx in the NY Assembly for eight years, writes in the New York Post that the drive for SSM "isn't Selma":

Just a week after Gov. Cuomo praised the Legislature for passing "historic" ethics-reform legislation, state senators opposed to enacting a "historic" same-sex marriage law are being courted with promises of political cover, endorsements and (psst!) campaign cash: Make marriage equality happen and (wink, wink, nod, nod) we'll take care of our friends.

... Almost 60 years ago, Jim Crow laws and racial oppression systematically denied black Americans the free exercise of our political and economic freedoms. No matter their race, color or creed, lesbian and gay Americans (and those foreign-born) are found in every profession and at every social stratum.

In New York, our state and city human-rights laws provide protections and remedies against discrimination. Hate-crime laws severely punish those who viciously prey upon the gay community.

The same-sex-marriage movement is not nobly about obtaining a long-denied civil right. It's about settling old scores against religious leaders, institutions, parents and the greatest villains of all-time -- "straight white men of privilege."