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NEW YORK SENATE-PRESIDENT-OR-SOMETHING: "WE WILL VOTE ON MARRIAGE EQUALITY!"

By Ameriqueer
According to the New York Times this morning:

Pedro Espada Jr., the new State Senate president, said in a radio interview on Tuesday morning that he personally wanted to bring same-sex marriage to a vote, news that will give some encouragement to gay activists who read defeat into Monday’s Republican Senate coup.

...“I am for same-sex marriage,” Mr. Espada said. “There will be no guarantees and no quid pro quos, I think there will be a vote of conscience of the senators. And with my partner in government, Senator Skelos, we have not discussed bringing it out to the floor. I’m expressing my own personal desire to see a full debate and decision on this matter.”

The Senate majority leader, Dean G. Skelos, a Long Island Republican who is sharing power with Mr. Espada under the new leadership arrangement, said he and Mr. Espada would discuss the issue of same-sex marriage and other matters later on Tuesday.

The Empire State Pride Agenda, a gay rights organization, called for a Senate vote on the same-sex marriage bill — which the Assembly has already passed — before the end of the legislative session, notwithstanding the change in party control.

“Our issues are not partisan issues,” Alan Van Capelle, the organization’s executive director, said on Tuesday. “They are about equal rights for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who are treated like second-class citizens. Our hope and expectation is that yesterday’s events will not derail efforts by our community to win the equality we so desperately need.”


Marriage Equality Bill sponsor Senator Tom Duane's office was expressing pessimism about the bill this morning when I called in. I think they're still most likely very pessimistic about life in general, but this may be a BIT of good news to brighten things up. Tom Duane has famously said he "has the votes" on the Marriage Equality bill. Regardless of all of the anarchy in the Senate yesterday, the same Senators are still there that were there before. Their votes on this bill should not change, and if it is, indeed, coming to the floor for a vote, then its likely that--as long as Duane was accurate--New York STILL MAY GET MARRIAGE EQUALITY!

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