After three days of protesting gay marriage, the Hall family was exhausted. Their stash of supplies — homemade sandwiches, sunflower seeds and sliced vegetables — had been depleted. And the monotonous routine of holding up handwritten placards had lost much of its novelty.
“We are very weary at the end of the day,” Rebecca Hall as she stood outside the ornate Senate gallery Wednesday night. “But it’s worth it.”
Over the last few weeks, the family — Rebecca, 36, Craig, 43, and James, 9 — had concluded that their Christian faith required them to travel 150 miles each way from Owego, N.Y., near Binghamton, to Albany to defend traditional marriage.
“We feel this bill is bad for the New York and the whole country,” Mr. Hall said.
They did not yell or scream as state senators and their staff members passed. Their signs spoke for them.
“Just say no to same-sex marriage,” read one. “Stand for marriage,” declared another. -- NYTimes' CityRoom Blog
And a big THANK YOU to all of our supporters who have demonstrated such energy and patience on this long road to victory!
New York's Republican Senate leader says his members will consider a gay marriage bill in closed-door session, a possible step toward a full vote.
Sen. Dean Skelos says Thursday's debate will come after the Senate passes a slew of more mundane bills.
The bill will either be sent to the Senate floor for a vote or held back, effectively killing the measure for the second time since 2009.
If you haven't taken a moment to call the seven undecided Senators - and encouraged your friends (especially in New York) to do the same - please do so NOW
Things are red hot in New York today, as Politicoreports:
The timing of the fundraiser President Barack Obama will attend in New York on Thursday with gay and lesbian supporters couldn’t be any better for supporters of gay marriage — or more awkward for a president conspicuously “evolving” on the issue.
Obama won’t — and, realistically, he can’t — completely avoid the looming vote in Albany on a bill to legalize gay marriage in New York, but he’s unlikely to dwell on the topic or explicitly endorse the policy. More likely, he will cite his support for civil unions and reiterate his long-held position that states have the right to pass whatever laws they see fit, according to a person familiar with the White House’s thinking.
But even his biggest supporters in the LGBT community, whose political and economic influence far exceeds their numbers, are quietly tickled that their tiptoeing ally is being forced to walk the coals.
“It’s hilarious,” said a prominent gay Obama supporter who urges skeptics to credit his accomplishment — especially the landmark repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy — rather than focus on his holdout on gay marriage.
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."
The New York morning roundup from City Hall and The Capitol - Thursday, June 23rd:
HEARD AROUND TOWN:
Jim Alesi, the first Republican senator to say he'll vote for gay marriage, is going all-in for the cause. Word is he will formally become a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign later this week.
Varied approaches to sexuality is probably the most taboo of the constructs that same-sex couples may import into marriage, and one that Coontz, of the Council on Contemporary Families, approaches very delicately. "I want to be very careful about how this is phrased, but there is a prevalence among some same-sex relationships, particularly gay male relationships, to establish long-term commitments while allowing for nonmonogamy," she says. "While this is not for every opposite-sex couple, just as it is not right for every same-sex couple, it is one of the ways that some people may handle the pressures of a world where people want partnerships but live long lives and have frequent opportunities."
Gov. Christie has vowed to veto a gay marriage bill -- but Steve Goldstein is hinting at a fight anyway:
No matter what the outcome in New York, neighboring New Jersey will likely be the next new arena for marriage equality. Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer), the state’s only openly gay legislator, introduced a marriage equality bill there on June 13.
The New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney on June 20 apologized on the floor of the Senate for not voting in favor of marriage equality in January 2010, when it was defeated. Sweeney’s apology prompted Steven Goldstein, chair of New Jersey’s leading LGBT political group, Garden State Equality, to issue a statement noting that the votes are there to pass marriage equality in both houses of the legislature -- but not to override the expected veto from Governor Chris Christie (R). That means, Goldstein said, that "New Jersey will have to win marriage equality through other means."
He added, "Stay tuned for an announcement very, very soon."
The New Jersey Supreme Court in June 2010 refused to hear a case that claimed the state’s civil union law did not provide full equality. It said the case must first go through the trial court process -- making such a process the likely next step for advocates of marriage equality. --Bay Windows
New York's state Senate says a bill to legalize gay marriage won't be considered Wednesday night. A spokesman said a slew of more mundane but critical bills pushed consideration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's same-sex marriage bill into Thursday at the earliest.
The Senate Republican majority plans to debate the bill in a closed-door conference before deciding whether to send the measure to the floor for a vote. An unofficial tally shows the bill may be just one vote shy of passage, if it gets to the full Senate.
Lobbying will continue until the Senate adjourns (no word yet when that will be) - which gives us more time to contact on-the-fence Senators!
The gay community appears to be balking at individual exemptions. Nice analysis of the political considerations facing Republicans:
New York’s gay marriage law remains stuck in the Republican-controlled state Senate, where legislators are considering the law’s potential impact on religious groups – and, some analysts say, their own political fortunes.
... The state law bars discrimination based on sexual orientation, but makes certain exceptions for religious institutions. If the marriage law expanded the exemptions to include individuals or businesses, the law would be seriously weakened, says Susan Sommer, director of constitutional litigation for Lambda Legal, which supports same-sex marriage.
“This would be a rollback on civil rights, setting us back decades,” she says.
... Republican senators – the majority of whom oppose the bill – may have real moral concerns about gay marriage, but they also may have used the debate about the exemption language to let them avoid bringing the controversial measure to a vote, Professor Benjamin says.
“I think, at bottom, they’d prefer not to act, and they’d like to find reasons not to act,” says Benjamin.
Part of their reluctance may stem from threats by conservative groups to punish any Republicans who support the bill. The state’s Conservative Party, which makes influential endorsements, threatened to oppose Republicans who vote for the bill.
We're down to the final hours in New York – can you please stop what you're doing and make 7 phone calls to protect marriage?
We're hearing that a vote on the same-sex marriage bill could come today. It's critical that we keep the pressure up, and your phone calls today could make the difference.
Please call and tell these 7 senators to vote no on the same-sex marriage bill. Marriage belongs to the people of New York, and it's not just 62 senators, but every New Yorker who deserves to vote on marriage.
Please call right now:
Stephen Saland
(518) 455-2411
Andrew Lanza
(518) 455-3215
Mark Grisanti
(518) 455-3240
Greg Ball
(518) 455-3111
John Flanagan
(518) 455-2071
Joseph Addabbo
(518) 455-2322
Shirley Huntley
(518) 455-3531
And if you have trouble getting through on the direct lines, call the Capitol Switchboard at (518) 455-2800 and ask for these 7 senators.
If you can't call, you can still send a message by email, but given the fact that a vote could come today, phone calls are most critical.
Make your phone calls, tell a friend, and keep praying!
A seminary professor rejects religious liberty protections (in the context of the New York marriage debate) on the grounds the law should not "cater to bigots."
Columns like these raise the question: is the purpose of gay marriage to be able to use the power of government to exclude and marginalize dissenters? Are the negative consequences for religious liberty a "bug" or a "feature" in their eyes?
A religious exemption for caterers? Really? Doesn’t this expose the fundamental contradiction between “religious exemptions” and equal civil rights for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people? If you include catering, a completely contractual and voluntary arrangement to provide food services, in a “religious exemption” clause, you are just catering to bigotry instead. -- WaPo's On Faith Columnist Susan Brooks
State Senate Republicans are in yet another meeting, with same-sex marriage yet again a main subject. Here’s something to watch for when they finally emerge: a possible push to settle the legalization question through public referendum.
Cuomo would never go for it, but the theory is that this move would spare the last few Senate undecideds the wrath of stridently pro- and anti-marriage forces, while at the same time throwing Governor Cuomo’s words of last night back at him, that “the people are entitled to a vote on this issue.” He was talking about a legislative vote, this week, of course, and the rest of Cuomo’s remarks seemed to indicate he believes he’s got the decisive margin locked down.
Calling for a referendum would also be an attempt to calm the Conservative Party’s Mike Long: Hey, we tried everything to stop this. Delay and deferral are art forms in Albany.
Tense dueling protests shook the Senate’s marble halls this morning as the chamber’s Republican majority huddled privately over a jam-packed agenda that included a possible vote on gay marriage.
... “Once again, we urge you to stand strong for traditional marriage and not put a bill on the floor,” Long said. “Any bill that will harm our state should not be allowed a vote.”
... The Conservative chairman has threatened to strip the party’s endorsement from any Republican senator who votes for marriage, a move that could jeopardize the party’s one-vote majority and its only toehold to state power.
... Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau) has so far not committed to any action on the marriage bill, despite Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s assertion last night that New Yorkers were “entitled” to a public vote.
“The governor at one time said he didn’t want a vote on marriage unless it was going to pass,” Skelos told reporters after he arrived this morning. “He’s changed his tune. We haven’t conferenced that issue and some point we will.”
Any vote would follow action on the omnibus rent bill, meaning action was unlikely until late tonight and possibly might not come until tomorrow or Friday.
God bless these good people!
