Dear Marriage Supporter,

A new development in Albany last week provides us a great opportunity to finally give voters the right to vote on marriage in New York. According to the New York Daily News, legislative leaders have agreed with Governor Cuomo to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to expand casino gambling. If they can do this to support gambling, surely they can give the people the right to vote on marriage!

Please pick up the phone and call your state legislator to demand your right to vote on marriage!

Earlier this year our coalition pressed the Legislature to give New Yorkers the right to vote on marriage, just as voters in 31 other states have already done. The word we got back from Republican Senators was that it was too late to put something on the ballot.

With word now that the Republican Senate leadership has agreed to put gambling on the ballot, it's clear there is still time to put the definition of marriage on the ballot as well.

You can email your Senator or Representative here to demand that marriage be put on the ballot if there is going to be a vote on expanded casino gambling.

Please contact your legislators immediately—today—to let them know that you demand the right to vote on marriage. How much more important to New York is the institution of marriage compared to casino gambling! There should be no vote on casino gambling unless there is a vote on marriage.

Time is of the essence—please contact your legislators today.

The imposition of same-sex marriage in New York was a sordid, shocking story of betrayal, big-time money and inside power politics. Four Republican Senators—Grisanti, Saland, McDonald and Alesi—betrayed their word to constituents and abandoned their commitment to marriage. They all promised they supported marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and then when gay marriage backers waved around promises of campaign cash, they abandoned principle and grabbed the cash, switching sides to impose gay marriage.

And boy, have they grabbed the cash! A few weeks ago, billionaire investors and hedge fund managers held a $1 million+ fundraiser for the four Senators at a swanky private club in Manhattan. All four have seen their campaign accounts fattened with the largest of gay marriage backers—happy to pay off Republicans who abandoned principle.

But the GOP Four are not the only ones feeding at the trough of gay marriage fat cat contributors. Last weekend, Governor Cuomo flew to Hollywood, where he was feted at a fundraising event thrown in his dishonor by gay marriage supporters. The Hollywood glitterati paid upwards of $12,500 each to support Cuomo, who press reports say sees himself as a candidate for president in 2016. The Hollywood crowd see in Cuomo a new champion of liberalism, who they hope will push same-sex marriage at the federal level as well.

The other day a New York state judge castigated Governor Cuomo and the Senate, led by Republican Senator Dean Skelos, for the process they utilized to impose same-sex marriage. The judge, Robert Wiggins, sharply criticized Governor Cuomo for pushing through the legislation by declaring it an urgent necessity, and letting the Legislature avoid a requirement that pending legislation undergo a minimum three-day public inspection. The judge also ruled that a lawsuit challenging the law's validity could proceed, because legislators may have violated state open meeting laws in order to pass the bill.

Doesn't this anger you? It infuriates me that God's institution of marriage could be auctioned off to the highest bidder and trampled on by a Republican-controlled Senate that disregards established rules and open meeting laws in their rush for cash at the end of the gay marriage rainbow.

But now, we have a chance for the people to reclaim our historic definition of marriage if we can force the Legislature to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. If they can put expanded casino gambling on the ballot, surely they can put the definition of marriage on the ballot as well.

Please don't let this opportunity go by. Speak out today with this clear message—no casino expansion on the ballot unless we get the right to vote on marriage at the same time!

Time is of the essence. It's time for all marriage supporters to come together to push for a vote for traditional marriage. No casino gambling vote without a vote to restore marriage!

Faithfully,

Brian S. Brown
President
National Organization For Marriage