12.02
Senator Thomas K. Duane, the sponsor of same-sex marriage legislation, embraced Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson after she announced her support for the bill during the debate on the senate floor on Wednesday in Albany.New York State Senate Votes Down Gay Marriage Bill
By Jeremy W. Peters
New York Times: December 2, 2009
ALBANY — The State Senate defeated a bill on Wednesday that would legalize same-sex marriage, after an emotional debate that touched on civil rights, family and history. The vote means that the bill, pushed by Gov. David A. Paterson, is effectively dead for the year and destroys the optimism of gay rights advocates.
The bill was defeated by a decisive margin of 38 to 24. The Democrats, who have a bare, one-seat majority, did not have enough votes to pass the bill without some Republican support, but not a single Republican senator voted for the measure.
In a debate that in many instances was cast in unusually personal tones, many senators delivered emotional speeches on the floor of the chamber, equating the struggle for gay rights to the civil rights movement or the battle women have waged for equality.
One of the bill’s sponsors, State Senator Thomas K. Duane of Manhattan, who is gay, said the bill would finally give him something that as a New Yorker he has never enjoyed.
“This legislation would merely provide me and tens of thousands of other New Yorkers with equal rights in New York State,” Mr. Duane said. “It would make me equal in every way to everyone else in this chamber.”
Senator Liz Krueger, a Democrat who represents Manhattan’s Upper East Side and another of the bill’s sponsors, said her grandparents came to the United States to escape persecution against Jews. As a Jew and a woman, Ms. Krueger said her decision to support same-sex marriage was easy to make.
But State Senator Rubén Díaz Sr. of the Bronx made an impassioned argument against same-sex marriage, describing his continued opposition as reflecting the broad consensus that marriage should be limited to a union between a man and woman. “Not only the evangelicals, not only the Jews, not only the Muslims, not only the Catholics, but also the people oppose it,” he said.
Senate Republicans had said before the vote that they believed their members could provide a few votes for the bill.
“There may be a few, that’s very possible,” said Senator Thomas W. Libous of Binghamton, the deputy Republican leader who said he will vote against the bill. “Everybody’s feeling is get it on the floor and let’s vote it up or down. It’s been talked about enough. Let’s get it done. I think it’s going to be very close.”
Ms. Krueger said before the debate began that she was optimistic the bill would pass, but added, “It depends on whether Republican votes are delivered.”
Had the legislation passed, New York would have become the sixth state where marriage between same-sex couples is legal or will soon be permitted. But now that it has failed, New York becomes the latest state where gay rights advocates have made considerable progress only to see their hopes dashed.
Last month Maine became the 31st state to block same-sex marriage through a referendum. The Maine State Legislature had voted to legalize same-sex unions earlier this year, but opponents of gay rights gathered enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot.
Last year, California voters repealed same-sex marriage after the State Supreme Court said that gay couples had the right to marry.
Unlike in Maine, however, New York does not have a referendum process that allows voters to overturn an act of the Legislature.
The State Assembly had already approved the legislation, and Gov. David A. Paterson had said he would immediately sign the bill if it made it to his desk.
Shortly after midnight on Wednesday, the Assembly voted 88 to 51 to allow same-sex marriage. Though the Assembly has already passed the bill twice, a quirk in New York’s legislative code required the Assembly to pass the bill again before the governor can sign it.
As the vote approached advocates on both sides of the debate were pushing ahead with a last-minute effort to shore up support.
“We’re working it as hard as we can,” said Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, a Democrat who represents the Upper West Side and who supports same-sex marriage. “It feels very good right now. It feels like its going to happen. But this is an issue where some people don’t want to declare themselves until the last minute. And I think, believe it or not, I think there are one or two people who are really still torn.”
Demonstrators on both sides of the issue were relatively scarce in the Capitol on Wednesday. A small group of Orthodox Jews gathered outside the Senate chamber, one of them holding a sign that read “Gay Union/A Rebellion Against the Almighty.”
Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss of Monsey, N.Y., said he traveled to Albany to remind the Senate “that the world belongs to the Almighty, and they have to reckon with his rules and his law.”
As John L. Sampson, the Senate Democratic leader, walked into his office on Wednesday morning, he flashed a thumbs-up to same-sex marriage supporters standing a few feet from the protesters. But Mr. Sampson acknowledged he did not know how the vote would turn out.
“I’ve got my work cut out for me,” he said.
* New York Times 2009
Photo Credit: Nataniel Brooks for the New York Times