The marriage bill just dropped in New York, and now we’ve entered a full-on war of one-upmanship with the good guys and the bad guys scrambling to top each other. And not in a fun spanky way.
On Monday, a thousand LGBTs rallied for marriage in Albany. On the same day, the Knights of Columbus prayed to stop marriage. On Tuesday, Governor Cuomo launched a statewide tour for marriage. Then the National Organization for Marriage pledged $1.5 million to stop marriage. Cuomo’s doing robo-calls for marriage. NOM’s sending a bus around the state.
And now, Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell has announced (via Twitter, no less) that he’s finally introduced the marriage equality act, A7600.
You can help get the marriage bill passed: call legislators, donate cash, or join a phonebank.
If things keep escalating, we’re basically headed towards a doomsday device and mutually assured destruction.
Monday’s rally was a good sign, though. A big crowd and plenty of supportive politicians made it what one senator called “the best day ever, in Albany.”
But while the gays were stirring up trouble in New York’s seat of power, NOM & friends launched an anti-gay RV in that other important New York metropolis: Elmira. Wait, what?
Yes, it would seem that the anti-gays are pursuing a decidedly small-town approach with their statewide tour: Utica! Buffalo! Fairport! Halfmoon! Who exactly are they trying to rally, a herd of moose?
Mark Horn
The closing comment about who are they trying to rally, a herd of moose — well, that kind of thinking about the people in small towns is what lost Prop 8 in CA. Put a lot of small towns together and that’s a lot of people — all of who are represented by senators and reps in Albany. Ignore them or speak of them disparagingly and we deserve to lose.
Daniel
Mark Horn got it in one: it’s the small town areas that can push their reps to defeat this thing, even if more dense, urban areas have the numbers to push it through.
Andrew
I’m from Half Moon thank you very much, and it’s far from rural. I’ve never seen a deer in my four years of living here, much less a moose thank you very much.
Mark
As Mark H noted, it IS the small towns that will make or break this effort. Now is the time to stop playing nice and go for the jugular vein with the lies of NOM, FOF, etc. Playing nice has gotten us no where and ignoring small town USA, or in this case, NY, is not going to be a smart move.
If I were a NY res I would call legislators, etc. but being out of state, my calling is not something they, the legislators care about. Now, donating money, that I can do.
colin
Before we go writing off the small towns and being big city snobs, lets remember it was The Bronx’s own favorite democrat Rubin Diaz who was the ONLY person to get up and speak out against the gay marriage bill on the floor the last time it came up for a vote in the New York State Senate.
robert in NYC
I’d like to know who among the republicans will vote in support of marriage equality. Without them, we can’t win with the likes of Ruben Diaz and five or six other blue-dog democrats in the legislature voting against it last time and will probably vote against it this time. We were defeated by 8 votes I believe when it came to a vote in 2009, that was a huge margin. I hope it doesn’t happen again, but my gut feeling tells me it might.
I read in the paper this morning that this legislation if passed will have global implications, whatever that means. Already 10 countries have legalized it and more are on their way without the help of New York. The UK apparently begins a consultation on the issue in July. Finland will probably pass it smarriage equality legislation later this year.