Lest anyone think Alan Van Cappelle, the Empire State Pride Agenda executive director, is leaving his post with a failed gay marriage vote as his parting song, the group’s seven-year veteran is going on the attack one last time. And it’s aimed at State Sen. Thomas Duane. Who’s A Gay.
Van Cappelle has attacked Duane before; last year, during a ESPA dinner, he called out the senator for failing to make good on his promise to usher the marriage bill to a full vote. And now Van Cappelle says, in an email to the organization’s members, that voters must once again lobby Duane on the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), which would provide housing and employment protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. The bill was passed by New York’s Assembly; it stalled in the Senate.
And that delay is Duane’s fault. The Post relays: “In an email missive aimed for wide distribution sent by a top ESPA official, the group paints Duane, the lone openly gay state senator, as the major holdup on passing the GENDA bill — suggesting as lead sponsor he is refusing to recraft some language to move it to a committee where it could get enough votes to move forward.”
ESPA has gone after Duane on this bill before; last year, ESPA also called on supporters to call Duane’s office. Which means Van Cappelle isn’t really doing anything out of the ordinary as he makes his transition from ESPA’s head chair. Really, it’s just business as usual.
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Paschal
Senator Duane is probably the best supporter of gay rights in the entire New York Legislature. Alan Van Cappelle should stop blaming Senator Duane ans start focusing his efforts on the 38 senators who voted agaimst marriage equality.
justin allen
What a joke of a person this Van Cappelle… Senator Duane has poured his heart and soul out!
pogobock
This is all Obama’s fault
Paschal
@pogobock: You can’t blama President Obama for everything. He’s certainly an improvement on the former president. Many politicians wouldn’t dare support repeal of D.A.D.T. He’s making the best of a bad situation.
hardmannyc
It sounds on the surface like Duane isn’t budging on principle, and ESPA wants him to compromise. An odd situation for the state’s major gay-rights lobbying group (if true).
Duane’s my state senator. I can say his constituents, both gay and straight, are very happy with him. I don’t think he’ll lose sleep over this.