CIVIL RIGHTS VICTORY! New York State Allows Same-Sex Marriage,
Doubling The Number of Americans Who Have Marriage Equality Right!
-by Tommy Equality News Thomas
On Friday, June 24th, By a vote of 33-29, The New York State Senate
narrowly voted in favor of Marriage Equality. Twenty nine Democrats
and four Republicans voted for the bill. Twenty eight Republicans and
one Democrat, Rubin Diaz Sr, voted against Equality. Governor Cuomo
quickly signed the bill into law, and same sex marriages can begin in
30 days in New York, the largest State to legalize Marriage Equality.
The Number of Americans Who now have the right to Marriage Equality
has roughly doubled. Many thanks to all who worked so hard to get this
legislation passed. We have much to celebrate this Pride weekend.
We still have much work to do, and we should work to vote the 29 NY
State Senators who voted against the bill, all Republicans except for
homophobic Democrat Ruben Diaz Sr, out of office. All nine Republican
Long Island Senators voted no. They all should go.
At the “Gala With the Gay Community” dinner fundraiser in New York
before the vote, President Obama called the impending vote
"Wonderful!" and gave openly gay Suffolk County Legislator Jon Cooper
a big hug. The President has pledged to repeal The Federal Defense of
Marriage Act, DOMA, and to allow full Federal protections and benefits
to married same sex couples.
Congratulations on this huge Civil Rights victory in the great
Progressive State of New York ! Let's celebrate together. Happy Pride.
From The New York Times:
New York Allows Same-Sex Marriage, Becoming Largest State to Pass Law
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: June 24, 2011
A Sense of Euphoria Settles on the West Village (June 25, 2011)
ALBANY — Lawmakers voted late Friday to legalize same-sex marriage,
making New York the largest state where gay and lesbian couples will
be able to wed and giving the national gay-rights movement new
momentum from the state where it was born.
The marriage bill, whose fate was uncertain until moments before the
vote, was approved 33 to 29 in a packed but hushed Senate chamber.
Four members of the Republican majority joined all but one Democrat in
the Senate in supporting the measure after an intense and emotional
campaign aimed at the handful of lawmakers wrestling with a decision
that divided their friends, their constituents and sometimes their own
homes.
With his position still undeclared, Senator Mark J. Grisanti, a
Republican from Buffalo who had sought office promising to oppose
same-sex marriage, told his colleagues he had agonized for months
before concluding he had been wrong.
“I apologize for those who feel offended,” Mr. Grisanti said, adding,
“I cannot deny a person, a human being, a taxpayer, a worker, the
people of my district and across this state, the State of New York,
and those people who make this the great state that it is the same
rights that I have with my wife.”
Senate approval was the final hurdle for the same-sex marriage
legislation, which was approved last week by the Assembly. Gov. Andrew
M. Cuomo signed the measure at 11:55 p.m., and the law will go into
effect in 30 days, meaning that same-sex couples could begin marrying
in New York by late July.
Passage of same-sex marriage here followed a daunting run of defeats
in other states where voters barred same-sex marriage by legislative
action, constitutional amendment or referendum. Just five states
currently permit same-sex marriage: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts,
New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia.
At around 10:30 p.m., moments after the vote was announced, Mr. Cuomo
strode onto the Senate floor to wave at cheering supporters who had
crowded into the galleries to watch. Trailed by two of his daughters,
the governor greeted lawmakers, and paused to single out those
Republicans who had defied the majority of their party to support the
marriage bill.
“How do you feel?” he asked Senator James S. Alesi, a suburban
Rochester Republican who voted against the measure in 2009 and was the
first to break party ranks this year. “Feels good, doesn’t it?”
The approval of same-sex marriage represented a reversal of fortune
for gay-rights advocates, who just two years ago suffered a
humiliating defeat when a same-sex marriage bill was easily rejected
by the Senate, which was then controlled by Democrats. This year, with
the Senate controlled by Republicans, the odds against passage of
same-sex marriage appeared long.
But the unexpected victory had a clear champion: Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat
who pledged last year to support same-sex marriage but whose early
months in office were dominated by intense battles with lawmakers and
some labor unions over spending cuts.
Mr. Cuomo made same-sex marriage one of his top priorities for the
year and deployed his top aide to coordinate the efforts of a
half-dozen local gay-rights organizations whose feuding and
disorganization had in part been blamed for the defeat two years ago.
The new coalition of same-sex marriage supporters brought in one of
Mr. Cuomo’s trusted campaign operatives to supervise a $3 million
television and radio campaign aimed at persuading several Republican
and Democratic senators to drop their opposition.
For Senate Republicans, even bringing the measure to the floor was a
freighted decision. Most of the Republicans firmly oppose same-sex
marriage on moral grounds, and many of them also had political
concerns, fearing that allowing same-sex marriage to pass on their
watch would embitter conservative voters and cost the Republicans
their one-seat majority in the Senate.
Leaders of the state’s Conservative Party, whose support many
Republican lawmakers depend on to win election, warned that they would
oppose in legislative elections next year any Republican senator who
voted for same-sex marriage.
But after days of contentious discussion capped by a marathon
nine-hour closed-door debate on Friday, Republicans came to a fateful
decision: The full Senate would be allowed to vote on the bill, the
majority leader, Dean G. Skelos, said Friday afternoon, and each
member would be left to vote according to his or her conscience.
“The days of just bottling up things, and using these as excuses not
to have votes — as far as I’m concerned as leader, it’s over with,”
said Mr. Skelos, a Long Island Republican who voted against the bill.
Enlarge This Image
Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
Supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage rallied on Friday after
it was announced that the State Senate would vote on the measure in
Albany. More Photos »
Multimedia
Celebration at the Stonewall Inn
Celebration at the Stonewall Inn
Close VideoSee More Videos » Slide Show
New York Legalizes Same-Sex MarriageRelated
A Sense of Euphoria Settles on the West Village (June 25, 2011)
Times Topic: Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions, and Domestic
PartnershipsReaders' Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
Read All Comments (350) »
Just before the marriage vote, lawmakers in the Senate and Assembly
approved a broad package of major legislation that constituted the
remainder of their agenda for the year. The bills included a cap on
local property tax increases and a strengthening of New York’s rent
regulation laws, as well as a five-year tuition increase at the State
University of New York and the City University of New York.
But Republican lawmakers spent much of the week negotiating changes to
the marriage bill to protect religious institutions, especially those
that oppose same-sex weddings. On Friday, the Assembly and the Senate
approved those changes. But they were not enough to satisfy the
measure’s staunchest opponents. In a joint statement, New York’s
Catholic bishops assailed the vote.
“The passage by the Legislature of a bill to alter radically and
forever humanity’s historic understanding of marriage leaves us deeply
disappointed and troubled,” the bishops said.
Besides Mr. Alesi and Mr. Grisanti, the four Republicans who voted for
the measure included Senators Stephen M. Saland from the Hudson Valley
area and Roy J. McDonald of the capital region.
Just one lawmaker rose to speak against the bill: Rubén Díaz Sr. of
the Bronx, the only Democratic senator to cast a no vote. Mr. Díaz,
saying he was offended by the two-minute restrictions set on speeches,
repeatedly interrupted the presiding officer who tried to limit the
senator’s remarks, shouting, “You don’t want to hear me.”
“God, not Albany, has settled the definition of marriage, a long time
ago,” Mr. Díaz said.
The legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States is a
relatively recent goal of the gay-rights movement, but over the last
few years, gay-rights organizers have placed it at the center of their
agenda, steering money and muscle into dozens of state capitals in an
often uphill effort to persuade lawmakers.
In New York, passage of the bill reflects rapidly evolving sentiment
about same-sex unions. In 2004, according to a Quinnipiac poll, 37
percent of the state’s residents supported allowing same-sex couples
to wed. This year, 58 percent of them did. Advocates moved
aggressively this year to capitalize on that shift, flooding the
district offices of wavering lawmakers with phone calls, e-mails and
signed postcards from constituents who favored same-sex marriage,
sometimes in bundles that numbered in the thousands.
Dozens more states have laws or constitutional amendments banning
same-sex marriage. Many of them were approved in the past few years,
as same-sex marriage moved to the front line of the culture war and
politicians deployed the issue as a tool for energizing their base.
But New York could be a shift: It is now by far the largest state to
grant legal recognition to same-sex weddings, and one that is home to
a large, visible and politically influential gay community. Supporters
of the measure described the victory in New York as especially
symbolic — and poignant — because of its rich place in the history of
gay rights: the movement’s foundational moment, in June 1969, was a
riot against police inside the Stonewall Inn, a bar in the West
Village.
In Albany, there was elation after the vote. But leading up to it,
there were moments of tension and frustration. At one point, Senator
Kevin S. Parker, a Brooklyn Democrat, erupted when he and other
supporters learned they would not be allowed to make a floor speech.
“This is not right,” he yelled, before storming from the chamber.
During a brief recess during the voting, Senator Shirley L. Huntley, a
Queens Democrat who had only recently come out in support of same sex
marriage, strode from her seat to the back of the Senate chamber to
congratulate Daniel J. O’Donnell, an openly gay Manhattan lawmaker who
sponsored the legislation in the Assembly.
They hugged, and Assemblyman O’Donnell, standing with his longtime
partner, began to tear up.
“We’re going to invite you to our wedding,” Mr. O’Donnell said. “Now
we have to figure out how to pay for one.”
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/25/nyregion/gay-marriage-approved-by-new-york-senate.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&nl=nyregion&emc=ura1
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
Doubling The Number of Americans Who Have Marriage Equality Right!
-by Tommy Equality News Thomas
On Friday, June 24th, By a vote of 33-29, The New York State Senate
narrowly voted in favor of Marriage Equality. Twenty nine Democrats
and four Republicans voted for the bill. Twenty eight Republicans and
one Democrat, Rubin Diaz Sr, voted against Equality. Governor Cuomo
quickly signed the bill into law, and same sex marriages can begin in
30 days in New York, the largest State to legalize Marriage Equality.
The Number of Americans Who now have the right to Marriage Equality
has roughly doubled. Many thanks to all who worked so hard to get this
legislation passed. We have much to celebrate this Pride weekend.
We still have much work to do, and we should work to vote the 29 NY
State Senators who voted against the bill, all Republicans except for
homophobic Democrat Ruben Diaz Sr, out of office. All nine Republican
Long Island Senators voted no. They all should go.
At the “Gala With the Gay Community” dinner fundraiser in New York
before the vote, President Obama called the impending vote
"Wonderful!" and gave openly gay Suffolk County Legislator Jon Cooper
a big hug. The President has pledged to repeal The Federal Defense of
Marriage Act, DOMA, and to allow full Federal protections and benefits
to married same sex couples.
Congratulations on this huge Civil Rights victory in the great
Progressive State of New York ! Let's celebrate together. Happy Pride.
From The New York Times:
New York Allows Same-Sex Marriage, Becoming Largest State to Pass Law
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: June 24, 2011
A Sense of Euphoria Settles on the West Village (June 25, 2011)
ALBANY — Lawmakers voted late Friday to legalize same-sex marriage,
making New York the largest state where gay and lesbian couples will
be able to wed and giving the national gay-rights movement new
momentum from the state where it was born.
The marriage bill, whose fate was uncertain until moments before the
vote, was approved 33 to 29 in a packed but hushed Senate chamber.
Four members of the Republican majority joined all but one Democrat in
the Senate in supporting the measure after an intense and emotional
campaign aimed at the handful of lawmakers wrestling with a decision
that divided their friends, their constituents and sometimes their own
homes.
With his position still undeclared, Senator Mark J. Grisanti, a
Republican from Buffalo who had sought office promising to oppose
same-sex marriage, told his colleagues he had agonized for months
before concluding he had been wrong.
“I apologize for those who feel offended,” Mr. Grisanti said, adding,
“I cannot deny a person, a human being, a taxpayer, a worker, the
people of my district and across this state, the State of New York,
and those people who make this the great state that it is the same
rights that I have with my wife.”
Senate approval was the final hurdle for the same-sex marriage
legislation, which was approved last week by the Assembly. Gov. Andrew
M. Cuomo signed the measure at 11:55 p.m., and the law will go into
effect in 30 days, meaning that same-sex couples could begin marrying
in New York by late July.
Passage of same-sex marriage here followed a daunting run of defeats
in other states where voters barred same-sex marriage by legislative
action, constitutional amendment or referendum. Just five states
currently permit same-sex marriage: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts,
New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia.
At around 10:30 p.m., moments after the vote was announced, Mr. Cuomo
strode onto the Senate floor to wave at cheering supporters who had
crowded into the galleries to watch. Trailed by two of his daughters,
the governor greeted lawmakers, and paused to single out those
Republicans who had defied the majority of their party to support the
marriage bill.
“How do you feel?” he asked Senator James S. Alesi, a suburban
Rochester Republican who voted against the measure in 2009 and was the
first to break party ranks this year. “Feels good, doesn’t it?”
The approval of same-sex marriage represented a reversal of fortune
for gay-rights advocates, who just two years ago suffered a
humiliating defeat when a same-sex marriage bill was easily rejected
by the Senate, which was then controlled by Democrats. This year, with
the Senate controlled by Republicans, the odds against passage of
same-sex marriage appeared long.
But the unexpected victory had a clear champion: Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat
who pledged last year to support same-sex marriage but whose early
months in office were dominated by intense battles with lawmakers and
some labor unions over spending cuts.
Mr. Cuomo made same-sex marriage one of his top priorities for the
year and deployed his top aide to coordinate the efforts of a
half-dozen local gay-rights organizations whose feuding and
disorganization had in part been blamed for the defeat two years ago.
The new coalition of same-sex marriage supporters brought in one of
Mr. Cuomo’s trusted campaign operatives to supervise a $3 million
television and radio campaign aimed at persuading several Republican
and Democratic senators to drop their opposition.
For Senate Republicans, even bringing the measure to the floor was a
freighted decision. Most of the Republicans firmly oppose same-sex
marriage on moral grounds, and many of them also had political
concerns, fearing that allowing same-sex marriage to pass on their
watch would embitter conservative voters and cost the Republicans
their one-seat majority in the Senate.
Leaders of the state’s Conservative Party, whose support many
Republican lawmakers depend on to win election, warned that they would
oppose in legislative elections next year any Republican senator who
voted for same-sex marriage.
But after days of contentious discussion capped by a marathon
nine-hour closed-door debate on Friday, Republicans came to a fateful
decision: The full Senate would be allowed to vote on the bill, the
majority leader, Dean G. Skelos, said Friday afternoon, and each
member would be left to vote according to his or her conscience.
“The days of just bottling up things, and using these as excuses not
to have votes — as far as I’m concerned as leader, it’s over with,”
said Mr. Skelos, a Long Island Republican who voted against the bill.
Enlarge This Image
Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
Supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage rallied on Friday after
it was announced that the State Senate would vote on the measure in
Albany. More Photos »
Multimedia
Celebration at the Stonewall Inn
Celebration at the Stonewall Inn
Close VideoSee More Videos » Slide Show
New York Legalizes Same-Sex MarriageRelated
A Sense of Euphoria Settles on the West Village (June 25, 2011)
Times Topic: Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions, and Domestic
PartnershipsReaders' Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
Read All Comments (350) »
Just before the marriage vote, lawmakers in the Senate and Assembly
approved a broad package of major legislation that constituted the
remainder of their agenda for the year. The bills included a cap on
local property tax increases and a strengthening of New York’s rent
regulation laws, as well as a five-year tuition increase at the State
University of New York and the City University of New York.
But Republican lawmakers spent much of the week negotiating changes to
the marriage bill to protect religious institutions, especially those
that oppose same-sex weddings. On Friday, the Assembly and the Senate
approved those changes. But they were not enough to satisfy the
measure’s staunchest opponents. In a joint statement, New York’s
Catholic bishops assailed the vote.
“The passage by the Legislature of a bill to alter radically and
forever humanity’s historic understanding of marriage leaves us deeply
disappointed and troubled,” the bishops said.
Besides Mr. Alesi and Mr. Grisanti, the four Republicans who voted for
the measure included Senators Stephen M. Saland from the Hudson Valley
area and Roy J. McDonald of the capital region.
Just one lawmaker rose to speak against the bill: Rubén Díaz Sr. of
the Bronx, the only Democratic senator to cast a no vote. Mr. Díaz,
saying he was offended by the two-minute restrictions set on speeches,
repeatedly interrupted the presiding officer who tried to limit the
senator’s remarks, shouting, “You don’t want to hear me.”
“God, not Albany, has settled the definition of marriage, a long time
ago,” Mr. Díaz said.
The legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States is a
relatively recent goal of the gay-rights movement, but over the last
few years, gay-rights organizers have placed it at the center of their
agenda, steering money and muscle into dozens of state capitals in an
often uphill effort to persuade lawmakers.
In New York, passage of the bill reflects rapidly evolving sentiment
about same-sex unions. In 2004, according to a Quinnipiac poll, 37
percent of the state’s residents supported allowing same-sex couples
to wed. This year, 58 percent of them did. Advocates moved
aggressively this year to capitalize on that shift, flooding the
district offices of wavering lawmakers with phone calls, e-mails and
signed postcards from constituents who favored same-sex marriage,
sometimes in bundles that numbered in the thousands.
Dozens more states have laws or constitutional amendments banning
same-sex marriage. Many of them were approved in the past few years,
as same-sex marriage moved to the front line of the culture war and
politicians deployed the issue as a tool for energizing their base.
But New York could be a shift: It is now by far the largest state to
grant legal recognition to same-sex weddings, and one that is home to
a large, visible and politically influential gay community. Supporters
of the measure described the victory in New York as especially
symbolic — and poignant — because of its rich place in the history of
gay rights: the movement’s foundational moment, in June 1969, was a
riot against police inside the Stonewall Inn, a bar in the West
Village.
In Albany, there was elation after the vote. But leading up to it,
there were moments of tension and frustration. At one point, Senator
Kevin S. Parker, a Brooklyn Democrat, erupted when he and other
supporters learned they would not be allowed to make a floor speech.
“This is not right,” he yelled, before storming from the chamber.
During a brief recess during the voting, Senator Shirley L. Huntley, a
Queens Democrat who had only recently come out in support of same sex
marriage, strode from her seat to the back of the Senate chamber to
congratulate Daniel J. O’Donnell, an openly gay Manhattan lawmaker who
sponsored the legislation in the Assembly.
They hugged, and Assemblyman O’Donnell, standing with his longtime
partner, began to tear up.
“We’re going to invite you to our wedding,” Mr. O’Donnell said. “Now
we have to figure out how to pay for one.”
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
