Posts Tagged ‘New York State Senate’

Two new pieces on marriage equality.

My first field report for Campus Progress.

Then a follow up opinion piece on Huffpost.

To Summarize:

“No” is not a sufficient explanation for denying millions of New Yorkers a right that I am free to take for granted. “No” is not how this country intended for us to begin — let alone end — a debate on equality. “No” warrants the question why. When that explanation is based in not fact, but freedom, than we must ask why the same freedom that enables a State Senator to say “no” in Albany prohibits a same-sex couple from saying “I do” in Brooklyn.

New York Politics at its worst.

In case you missed it–Today, two Democratic State Senators joined with the minority Republican caucus in a coup that unseated the sitting (or so he was a few hours ago) Majority Leader Malcom Smith and gave the GOP control of the Senate. Several reasons for the disruption have been cited, but the conventional wisdom seems to be that the decision was inspired by the likelihood of a vote on a marriage equality in the Senate’s last two weeks in session.

I’m utterly baffled. This came out of nowhere and while New York has long been known to have a somewhat dysfunctional (4 years ago the Brennan Center actually awarded the state with the title of THE most dysfunctional government) nobody in the state really seems to know how to proceed. The chance of some sort of law suit questioning the legality of the coup is likely to be Smith’s next step. In any event, if this was staged to prevent a measured debate on gay marriage, then today should go down as a shameful day in the state’s history.

You can stall giving a group of people who rightfully deserve equal protection under the law that right, but you can’t stop it. Justice will ultimately prevail, whether it happens in two weeks, or two years, or ten years is irrelevant, it is inevitable.

Regardless of the group of people in question, the American people will overcome the hesitancy and doubt and stereotypes that have prevented us from living out the ideals we were founded on.

Now would be as good a time as any for the our representatives in Albany to recognize that.

UPDATE: There’s no doubt that today’s events will impact the likelihood of marriage equality in New York State– however, State Senator Espada was a co-sponsor of legislation legalizing gay marriage and State Senator Monserrate was undecided.