NY Marriage Bill Fails

The New York state senate on Wednesday voted down a marriage equality bill by a wide margin following months of delay and protracted political drama.

In a special legislative session, the senate voted 38-to-24 against the bill, eight votes short of a majority, with no support from Republican senators. A state assembly marriage bill had passed for a third time late last night.

Governor David Paterson, who made marriage equality a centerpiece of his agenda, issued a statement a few hours after the vote that acknowledged the widespread sense of disappointment among advocates for the bill.

"I believe in my heart that if people had voted their consciences today, we would be celebrating marriage equality tonight," said Paterson. "That did not happen."

The governor quickly sought to turn the discussion toward the future.

"As disappointed as we are today, let's get up tomorrow and redouble our efforts," said Paterson. "We are going to lay the foundation to make people feel comfortable to vote their conscience and not fear political backlash."

The vote followed an emotional three-hour debate that included tears from the legislation's lead sponsor, Senator Thomas K. Duane, who is gay, and tirade from Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr, a Pentecostal minister and Bronx Democrat Senator who called the bill "treason," and argued that marriage equality should be decided in a public referendum.

Speaking to reporters following the vote, Senator Duane said: "I wasn't expected to be betrayed, and so I have some justified anger. But it's just going to propel me to -- I don't want to say redouble my efforts, because my efforts have been pretty strong -- but I'm not going to let up."

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is openly lesbian and lobbied intensely for the bill, echoed Duane's anger.

"I am mad," said Quinn, in a telephone interview late Wednesday afternoon as she returned from Albany. "There were people who had made promises and that's not where they ended up."

Still, the speaker said she was not caught off guard by the vote outcome.

"I knew when I went up to the gallery to watch the debate that we were likely to lose," said Quinn.

Win or lose, Empire State Pride Agenda, the state's leading LGBT lobby, framed the result as a long-awaited opportunity to learn where legislators stand on the marriage equality issue.

"While we are disappointed by today's vote, we are pleased that the issue of marriage equality at last was debated in the New York State Senate," said executive director Alan Van Capelle in a statement issued shortly after the vote. "We had long called for a public debate on this matter so we could determine who was truly on our side.

"It is a step forward for our democratic process in New York that a debate and vote have now occurred," said Van Capelle. "Now we know where we stand, and where we need to concentrate our efforts in the future."

No Republican legislator voted for the bill, despite being freed by their minority leader, Senator Dean Skelos of Long Island, to vote their consciences.

The Log Cabin Republicans of New York issued a statement seeking to situate the outcome squarely on the shoulders of Democrats, however.

"Today we share in the frustration and disappointment that the Senate did not pass the marriage equality bill," said Log Cabin legislative advisor Jeff Cook. "We are deeply saddened that the Democratic conference failed to secure the votes they promised, undermining the possibility of a credible bipartisan vote of conscience on the merits of marriage equality. Winning marriage equality in New York requires the Democrats to keep their promises, and Log Cabin will continue to work to ensure that Republicans vote their conscience when that finally happens."

But longtime gay activist and Democratic insider Ethan Geto suggested that Democrats, whom he described as "cautiously optimistic" before the vote, had been let down.

"It's shocking," said Geto. "Our head count before this vote certainly showed it closer, if not winning."

Geto pointed to a new Marist poll released Wednesday that showed a slim majority of New Yorkers -- 51% -- favored legalizing same-sex marriage, while 42% opposed it.

The defeat is another blow for a national marriage equality movement still reeling from a loss in Maine last month, where voters approved a ballot measure overturning a marriage bill passed in May. Some had hoped that the Washington D.C. City Council's Tuesday vote to grant marriage rights to same-sex couples would provide the needed momentum for a similar legislative victory in New York.

"Today's vote in the New York State Senate is painfully disappointing," Freedom to Marry executive director Evan Wolfson said in a statement. "The pro-equality senators told deeply moving, personal stories, drawing on their commitment to treating others as we'd all want to be treated, their beliefs, and their experiences as people of color, people of diverse faiths, and people with gay loved ones, to explain their decisions to vote for the freedom to marry. Those opposed had nothing to say to justify their denial of marriage to their neighbors."

The National Organization for Marriage, the antigay group that helped fund the recent Question 1 campaign in Maine, praised the vote, in a statement from executive director Brian Brown, as "a great victory [that] will reverberate up and down America, putting the fear of God -- and the American voter -- into the hearts of weak-kneed and weak-willed politicians everywhere."

Had the bill passed, New York would likely have become the sixth state to allow same-sex couples to marry (Governor David Paterson had pledged to sign the legislation). New York continues to recognize marriages performed in other states.

Click to the following page for the official Senate roll call.

Adams - Yes. "(H)oping New York State comes out of the closet and understands that all Americans deserve the right to marry and love... this is about love."

Addabbo - No.

Alesi - No.

Aubertine - No.

Bonacic - No.

Breslin - Yes.

DeFrancisco - No

Diaz Sr. - No.

Dilan - Yes.

Duane - Yes.

Espada Jr. - Yes. "Yes to this bill and to as many do-overs as we need to bring it home."

Farley - No.

Flanagan - No.

Foley - Yes.

Fuschillo - No.

Golden - No.

Griffo - No.

Hannon - No.

Hassell-Thompson - Yes.

Huntley - No.

C. Johnson. Yes.

O. Johnson. - No.

Klein - Yes.

L. Krueger - Yes.

C. Kruger - No.

Lanza - No.

Larkin - No.

Lavalle - No.

Leibell - No.

Libous - No.

Little - No.

Marcellino - No.

Maziarz - No.

McDonald - No.

Monserrate - No.

Montgomery - Yes.

Morahan - No.

Nozzolio - No.

Onorato - No.

Oppenheimer - Yes.

Padavan - No.

Parker - Yes. "This is the right thing to do, and we should do it now. I proudly vote 'aye'."

Perkins - Yes.

Razenhofer - No.

Robach - No.

Saland - No.

Sampson - Yes.

Savino - Yes.

Schneiderman - Yes.

Serrano - Yes.

Seward - No.

Skelos - No.

Smith - Yes.

Squadron - Yes.

Stachowski - No.

Stavisky - Yes.

Stewart-Cousins - Yes.

Thompson - Yes.

Valesky - Yes.

Volker - No.

Winner - No.

Young - No.