New York Senate Passes Same-Sex Marriage Bill; Governor Signed Before Midnight
New York has joined Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C., in making same-sex marriage the law of the state.
Friday night, the NY Senate passed the historic bill by a 33-29 vote; just before midnight first-year Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the bill into law. The law becomes effective July 24, 2011.
Thirty-two votes were needed for passage, which rested on the votes of four Republicans: James S. Alesi (Fairport), Mark Grisanti (Buffalo), Roy J. McDonald (Troy), and Stephen Saland (Poughkeepsie). One Democrat, Rubén Díaz, Sr. (the Bronx) was the only Democratic senator to vote “no” on the bill.
“I’m verklempt,” said a nervously optimistic Assemblyman Matthew Titone (D-S.I), one of five openly gay state lawmakers prior to the vote. “I’m still in a state of disbelief.” [...] For gay couples, marriage means more than just swapping rings.
For the first time they qualify for the same 1,324 state marriage benefits afforded to straight couples.
Same-sex couples are not eligible for federal marriage benefits because of the Defense of Marriage Act. (source)
The bill was lambasted by the Catholic Church:
“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,” [New York's Catholic] bishops said [in a joint statement].
This appears to be the case of the legislature following popular opinion, not leading it. Two years ago, a similar bill failed. At that time, only 37 percent of state residents supported same-sex marriage. A poll this year, conducted by Quinnipiac, showed 58 percent support.
6 Responses to “New York Senate Passes Same-Sex Marriage Bill; Governor Signed Before Midnight”
The four Republicans are short sighted fools. Now they will be pariah in their own party but the organized homosexual community will still support their Democratic opponents and give 100% of the donations to their opponents.
The four Republicans, when they are voted out of office, will be used as another example of why giving in to your opponents is always foolish.
My own reaction as I watched and listened to liberal-fluff CNN last night (with its obsessed live coverage of the signing and of Cuomo’s speech!) was, do people really view Cuomo (and his father) as real presidential material? As to the state’s firmly-in-the-past famous reputation, it was laughable to her Cuomo equivocate and refer to capital-P Progressivism when referring generically to “progressive” [sic; substantially to very liberal] events and achievements with which (long in the past!) New York is associated. The gay marriage approval itself was no big news.
(His father was famous for a whining-loser speech in 1984, that was annoying as well as pathetic — a speech the liberal media in previous years called “one of the best” or “the best” political speech ever. I also thought of his father for being associated with a short-lived losing liberal radio talk show. Robert Reich also had tried and failed on the radio, though he’s much smarter and more polished than most of the far-left talkers that are succeeding now. I’d actually like to hear Reich do a radio show now, unlike Mario or [snicker] Andrew Cuomo.)
All that was missing from Cuomo’s appearance and speech were a) silhouettes of dinosaurs on the walls; b) black-and-white steam locomotives on film as with slimebag Spitzer’s campaign commercials in the mid-2000s. It’s a big blue state hopelessly in the past. (It was the only megastate Hillary Clinton could exploit.)
So they’re the sixth state to approve gay marriage. (DC is not a state, and never should be! “Sea of blue,” politically, that outdoes New York and all the other blue states!) Wow, what leadership.
(Do people really view Cuomo or Spitzer as future Presidents?)
[...] New York Senate Passes Same-Sex Marriage Bill; Governor Signed Before Midnight (themoderatevoice.com) [...]
@DLS – When I read most of your posts, I can see you in, say, the 50s, talking about integration … or the 20s, talking about women’s suffrage.
@SuperDestroyer – Attitudes like these (the other party is the enemy and there are clear lines between parties on EVERY issue and they always align) is part of the problem with (a) American politics and (b) the two-party system.
Kathy,
In 1990, Bush I signed off on a tax increased supported by Democrats. In 1992 James Carville used the tax hike as a weapon against Bush I.
Any Republican who goes along with anything that gives Democrats more political power is just approving of their own political extinction.
Kathy — you need to open your eyes: it’s 2011 now.
(not the 1960s, which is the real problem with the real people with problems)
SInce apparently you didn’t understand, I’ll add for an aid: I don’t have problem with the gay marriage decision itself here, but with slimy and opportunistic Cuomo (aping an earlier Spitzer), in their beloved little Jurassic Park megastate basking in imaginary-now long-gone glory. (It was the only large state Hillary Clinton could exploit, and she did that.) It’s not puzzling (there’s a low half of any population), but disgusting that people admire such slime and actually believe they are U.S. Presidential material. [gag]
Along with frequent more-general tendencies of many lefties to be stuck in the past (in the Sixties, and truly pre-1975), there’s also the persistent emotional and mythical attachment of many lefties to New York (the state as well as the city). (It’s worse when others may not be so stuck in the past, but are ignorant of the way things are now, or see non-liberals as stuck in the past, a form of projection when not distorted interpretation or thought.)