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NY Marriage Equality Vote Now Looks Likely for ’09by Kilian MelloyWednesday Sep 30, 2009 Gay marriage is now legal in six states, all but one in the Northeast. While this is dramatic and encouraging, the defeat in California by Proposition 8 pointed up how difficult it is to get gay marriage legalized in one of the major states.
The action has shifted of late to New York. The Empire State already de facto legalizes gay marriage by recognizing unions performed elsewhere. But activists see the possibility of marriage there as very real.
The only question is how the state’s legislature--universally derided as the most dysfunctional in the country--will proceed on the issue. On this, as on any other issue of importance, the Legislature has shown a maddening ability to confound expectations. Still, activists see the fall session as a make-or-break for bringing the vote to the State Senate.
Last May the New York State Assembly voted--for the second time--to approve a bill that would extend marriage equality to all families in the Empire State.
Then the state Senate went through paroxysms as the newly-Democratic chamber’s membership made deals around the issue of when, and if, a vote on the bill would be permitted.
Then, in the legislative session’s waning days, a virtual coup in the state Senate more or less returned power to the chamber’s Republican members--even though no state Senators actually switched parties.
But the chaos caused by the shakeup derailed a lot of New York state business, including nailing down the state’s budget.
Still, New York governor David Paterson, a longtime GLBT ally, insisted that he would haul the state Senators back for special sessions in order to put outstanding business to rest--including marriage equality.
Throughout the tumult, dealmaker Thmoas K. Duane, an openly gay state Senator, insisted that he had secured enough votes--some of them Republican--to ensure passage of the bill.
Some doubted Duane’s assertion, but as yet the claim has remained untested: the state Senate has not resolved the marriage issue, and indeed has still not finalized the state’s budget, which will most likely have to be finished up before other business, such as marriage equality, will be addressed.
One of the state’s most prominent politicians, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an Independent, has said that he does not expect there is any chance that the bill will get a vote this year.
Bloomberg’s comment was reported upon by The Southern Voice on Sept. 30.
Bloomberg was cited by the Gay City News in a Sept, 21 story as saying that there was no possibility that the bill would see legislative action this year, the Southern Voice reported.
Bloomberg supports marriage equality but said that little could be expected from the state Senate, given that the chamber’s membership had not been "willing to stand up for less controversial issues" than marriage equality.
The Southern Voice article reported that other officials, as well as lobbyists, had denied that there was no chance that the bill would get a vote from the Senate in a special session this autumn.
The article quoted Duane as saying, "I’m not sure when we’re going to go back into session--that hasn’t been set yet--but I still am very confident that when we do come back in the Senate that we’ll pass marriage."
Duane did not think that Bloomberg’s remarks would have much sway among state lawmakers.
"As far as I know, the mayor hasn’t been involved in the strategy sessions or spoken with any of us who are involved in passage whether it’s myself or the [Empire State] Pride Agenda or the Human Rights Campaign," the article quoted the openly gay state Senator as saying.
"And for that matter, I don’t know of his having a discussion with the Democratic leadership or the Republican leadership in the Senate."
The Human Rights Campaign’s Marty Rouse sounded an optimistic note, saying, "Hopefully, when they vote on and resolve the budget issue, that’s when they can bring up other legislation including the marriage bill."
Rouse speculated that the next special session would take place at some point in "the next several weeks."
Though New York has yet to extend marriage equality to its gay and lesbian families, the state government does honor the unions of those New Yorkers who marry elsewhere.
Kilian Melloy reviews media, conducts interviews, and writes commentary for EDGEBoston, where he also serves as Assistant Arts Editor.
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