Bloomberg Video for Marriage Equality

Mayor Michael Bloomberg joins the list of prominent New Yorkers who have filmed videos in support of HRC's Campaign for New York Marriage.

The ad released Monday is the latest in a celebrity series that aims to generate support for a prospective vote on marriage equality in the New York state senate in 2011. Other participants include Julianne Moore, Kenneth Cole, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, David Chang, Fran Drescher, Tom Colicchio, Whoopi Goldberg, Joan Rivers, Moby, Ethan and Ryan Hawke, Christopher Meloni, Daphne Rubin-Vega, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and Sunrise and Mark Ruffalo.

In the newest ad, Mayor Bloomberg says, "I'm a New Yorker and I support marriage equality," while "Empire State of Mind" by Alicia Keys plays in the background. "Because government shouldn't tell you who to love or who to marry," says the mayor.

When the senate voted on the marriage equality bill for the first time last year, it failed by a margin of 38-24, with eight Democrats and all 30 Republicans voting no. Bloomberg, a Republican turned independent, is believed to hold some sway over Republican senators, having donated more than $1 million to the GOP state senate caucus in past election cycles. Meanwhile, Democrats are attempting to maintain, if not expand, their slim 32-30 majority in the chamber, while Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo, who faces Republican upstart Carl Paladino, has pledged his support for marriage equality.

The HRC Campaign for New York Marriage is led by Brian Ellner, a former Bloomberg aide who almost became head of the Empire State Pride Agenda, a statewide LGBT rights lobby, last spring but removed himself from consideration after some advocates objected to his close ties to the mayor. Bloomberg stoked the ire of many when, despite his personal support for marriage equality, he directed the city to appeal a 2005 ruling from a Manhattan judge in favor of same-sex marriage.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/v/rgMYjhO4wK4?fs=1&hl=en_US expand=1 site_id=25879312]