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Gay NY Pol Mulls Challenge to Sen. Gillibrandby Kilian MelloyWednesday Nov 18, 2009 Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, has a mixed record when it comes to GLBT equality measures. She’s in favor of civil unions at a federal level, with states free to decide whether to extend full marriage equality or not: ""All [the] things that we give to married couples, committed gay couples should be eligible for. And then the question of whether you call it a marriage or not, what you label it, that can be left to the states to decide," reads a Gillibrand quote posted at a Wikipedia article about her.
Gillibrand also publicly deliberated sponsoring legislation to repeal the ban on openly gay and lesbian military members; though Gillibrand decided against it, another lawmaker, Congressman Patrick Murphy, Democrat of Pennsylvania, has taken up a bill in the House.
On the other hand, before her appointment by New York Governor David Paterson to the Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton, now the Secretary of State, then-Congresswoman Gillibrand elected not to co-sponsor a bill to repeal DADT in 2007; that same year, she voted against a bill that would have granted gay Americans and their same-sex partners of other nationalities the same rights and protections as heterosexual couples of mixed nationalities.
In the last two years, however, Gillibrand has come to stand for marriage equality, supporting Gov. Paterson’s efforts to extend family parity to New York’s gay and lesbian families.
However, her conservative leanings prompted a New York politician, openly gay Jon Cooper, 54, to think about challenging Gillibrand when the seat vacated by Clinton comes up for election once again next year. Aside from one other, Cooper is the only potential challenger for Gillibrand’s hold on the seat, noted a Nov. 17 article at the The New York Observer, which suggested that Cooper had avoided pressure not to run as much by dint of his comparatively low profile as because of his relative outsider status. Said Cooper, who is the majority leader of the Suffolk County Legislature, "Unlike a member of Congress, they have... no stick to threaten me with and no carrot to offer me."
There’s also the fact that Cooper was an early Obama supporter--one of the first New York pols to forsake Hillary Clinton’s White House aspiration and get behind Obama’s presidential candidacy.
Nonetheless, Cooper--who has five adopted children with his male partner of over two decades--sees himself as a "pit bull," the article said. "If someone were to try to threaten me, it would just increase my desire" to enter the senatorial race, Cooper told the Observer. Although Gillibrand--in her current political incarnation--has the same stances on issues like GLBT equality and gun control as Cooper does, Cooper points out that she has come only lately to certain positions that Cooper has long espoused. "She’s now pro-same-sex marriage, as I have always been," Cooper told the Observer. "She supports repeal of ’Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ as I always have. She now says she supports gun control, which I’ve always done. So it’s true on all these issues of interest to me, she’s now apparently taking the right position." The difference is a question of commitment and conviction; the article notes that Gillibrand’s stances have shifted over time and with her own political prospects.
Gillibrand’s spokesperson Glen Caplin suggested that there has been continuity to the senator’s views. "While there has been a lot of misinformation out there, the fact is that Senator Gillibrand, as a mother of two and lawmaker, has always worked to protect children and families, promote equality and is now working closely with President Obama to rebuild the economy and create jobs here in NY."
Moreover, the Human Rights Campaign has already come out for Gillibrand in the next election, and Empire State Pride Agenda seems ready to follow suit: "By all accounts, Senator Gillibrand has been an aggressive proponent of LGBT rights, and that’s the record I’m looking at now," the group’s executive director, Alan Van Capelle, told the Observer.
As for the Obama administration, there has been no signal forthcoming that the White House would prefer Cooper to step back: ""All I know is no one in the White House has asked me not to run," said Cooper. "Chuck Schumer hasn’t asked me not to run. Even though I’ve been the only elected official out there for some time now. And I have a good relationship with Chuck; I have a good relationship with Obama; they haven’t asked me not to run." Cooper is expected to announce on Nov. 24 whether or not he will run.
Kilian Melloy reviews media, conducts interviews, and writes commentary for EDGEBoston, where he also serves as Assistant Arts Editor.
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