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Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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6 states down, 44 more to go
Tourism > ESB Right Now > Tower Lights - Empire State Building
Quote:
FINALLY: NY State Senate Passes Gay Marriage: Gothamist
Two years after the New York State Senate strongly rejected gay marriage it finally came to a vote again tonight. This time, the State Senate voted to legalize same-sex marriage by a margin of 33 to 29. The religious amendments to the bill passed in the Assembly by 82-47 earlier in the evening; now the bill just needs Governor Cuomo's signature to become law.
As the vote began there was some confusion when State Senator Tom Duane started to defend the bill he sponsored—saying "What this bill will do is say that we are family in a way that no other word can. And that word is marriage."—before he was replaced by Senator Stephen Saland who instead defended the bill's amendment, which he worked on. As he spoke about the bill and its inseverability clause it became increasingly clear that he would be the much rumored 32nd vote in favor of marriage equality in New York State.
"I, like many people, have struggled over this issue. It has been a difficult issue to deal with," he said. He then spoke of the thousands and thousands of his constituents who had contacted him and said, "They all asked me to do the right thing. Needless to say my decision on this bill is going to disappoint a significant number of people. I have to define doing the right thing as treating all persons with equality. And that equality includes the definition of marriage."
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A couple of years ago I posed this article from Time magazine because a friend made the newswires with this crazy but true image.
Tonight, I'm happy to say that my friend can now legally get married to his gay mormon husband.
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