NY Gov Introduces Marriage Bill Thursday

New York Governor David Paterson is trying to ameliorate his appallingly low approval ratings by pushing the ball forward on marriage equality in the Empire State. Tomorrow Paterson will be re-introducing a marriage equality bill that passed the State Assembly in Summer 2007 but never received a vote in the then Republican-controlled State Senate.

According to TowleRoad:

Paterson said in radio interviews last Thursday that he wants public debate on the issue: "I’m going to put the bill out and just let people fight it out. If it loses, it loses. And let the parties on both sides have their say. Inevitably, the inertia is that the public will accept this."

Alan van Capelle of the Empire State Pride Agenda, whose Equality & Justice lobby day at the state capitol is coming up later this month, expressed concern about Paterson's strategy: "Why would you want people to vote on something that you knew wasn’t going to get passed? We’re not interested in making statements."

MadProfessah respectfully disagrees. It's not about making statements, it's about finding out exactly where every legislator stands on the issue. They can SAY that they support the bill in private to LGBT activists and accept campaign money from progressive forces but until they actually have to publicly reveal their position on actual legislation, we won't know the actual level of support for marriage equality in the New York State Senate.

A bill that passes the Assembly again (with more votes) and goes down in the Senate will show the momentum of the movement for equality. If Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith really supports marriage equality, he will bring up the bill again, until it passes.