Roy McDonald Is 31st Public Vote for Marriage Equality

State Senator Roy McDonald (R-Rensselaer)

This is amazing news! I used to live in Troy, New York in upstate New York for 8 years while I was amassing my three degrees in mathematics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 1986-1994. Anywho, then my state senator was the notoriously homophobic (and corrupt) but very powerful Joseph Bruno who was the Republican Majority Leader and represented the "Capital District Tri-Cities" area of Schenectady, Albany and Troy. Bruno was indicted and convicted of corruption and replaced by State Senator Roy McDonald.

McDonald became the 31st State Senator (and 2nd Republican) to publicly announce his intention to vote Yes on marriage equality legislation pending before the New York state legislature.

The Times-Union has the deets:

Senator Roy McDonald, R-Saratoga, told the Times UnionTuesday that he will back a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. He becomes the 31st senator to proclaim his public support for the bill. It needs 32 votes to pass the Senate.

“I’m trying to do the right thing,” he said. “Rather than wait I worked with the governor…I’m not out to alienate anybody. This is driven by compassion.”

“My lifestyle is my lifestyle — I don’t want anyone telling me or my children what to do,” he said. “We’ve got 20 million people in this state…we can’t be paralyzed by social issues.”

“It’s my own evolution,” he said. “I think there’s going to be a vote on Friday.”

McDonald has been the subject of much lobbying on the issue of same-sex marriage, including a billboard on I-787 calling for his support. While he voted against the bill in 2009 and while an Assemblyman in 2007, he had hedged his position this year, as talk of legalizing same-sex marriage has once again intensified.

31 down, 1 to go! The still-undecided state Senators are:

 Stephen Saland  845-463-0840;
  Andrew Lanza  718-984-4073; 
  Greg Ball  845-279-3773;
  Kemp Hannon  516-739-1700;
  Charles Fuschillo  516-882-0630;
  Betty Little  518-743-0968  

It should be noted that these remaining undeclared State Senators signaled they were interested in voting for marriage equality (off-the-record) on Monday but are also all Catholic and will probably be targeted by religious extremists who do not understand that the Governor's proposed legislation is about civil marriage and has explicit exemptions for religious entities and individuals who do not want to sanction or solemnize same-sex civil marriages.