Gay advocates see bloodbath for New York Dem 'no' voters

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Gay advocates see bloodbath for New York Dem 'no' voters



Elizabeth Benjamin

Monday, December 7th 2009, 4:00 AM
Gay advocates will push to replace freshman Sen. Joseph Addabbo.

Gay advocates are on the warpath after the state Senate killed same-sex marriage last week, and few Democratic senators who voted against the bill are safe from their wrath.

After spending more than $1 million to help the Democrats retake the chamber for the first time in decades, powerful gay activists and donors say they'll support challengers against anti-gay-marriage senators in 2010.

"It's going to be a bloodbath," one gay operative predicted. "We're going to use every single weapon in our quiver to take these people out. We either need to replace them or scare the hell out of them so they do the right thing."

Gay activists are considered some of the most effective fund-raisers in state Democratic political circles.

"The community is apoplectic ... and the commitment to building the Democratic majority is over," the operative added. "We won't make the same mistake twice."

That doesn't mean gay support will automatically be shifted to the Senate Republicans, who are mounting a campaign to take back the majority next fall.

The GOP failed to provide a single "yes" vote when the marriage bill was defeated, 38-24, last week.

But most of the rage is focused on the Democrats, particularly the eight senators who joined the GOP in voting "no." Of the eight, freshman Queens Sen. Joe Addabbo is target No. 1.

Also in the advocates' crosshairs: Sens. Shirley Huntley and George Onorato, both of Queens, and Sen. Bill Stachowski of Buffalo.

Huntley survived a primary challenge from former Councilman Allan Jennings last year. So far, no one has formally come forward to take her on in 2010.

Democratic Assemblyman Mike Gianaris and outgoing Councilman Eric Gioia have been mentioned as possible opponents to Onorato.

Sen. Darrel Aubertine, a conservative upstater, was never considered a possible "yes," and thus is safer than some of his fellow "no" voters. Ditto for Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. of the Bronx, although advocates would like to recruit an opponent for him.

Gay advocates tried to get Councilman Lew Fidler to challenge Brooklyn Democrat Sen. Carl Kruger, who voted "no," but Fidler declined. Kruger would be tough to beat because he heads the powerful Senate Finance Committee and has $2 million in his campaign account .

Embattled Queens Sen. Hiram Monserrate, who faces possible expulsion by his colleagues for assaulting his girlfriend, was a surprise "no" vote.

He already has a primary challenger in Assemblyman Jose Peralta, who is backed by party leaders and has voted for gay marriage in the past.

- Real Estate Board of New York President Steven Spinola is putting his enrollment where his mouth is. Sources confirm the trade association head ditched the Democratic Party and signed up with the state Independence Party, which he is trying to build into a pro-business coalition to counter the powerful labor-backed Working Families Party.

State Independence Party Chairman Frank MacKay said he's thrilled about his newest member and hopes Spinola will take on a leadership role.

"I'm hoping Steve will attract more like him," MacKay said.

ebenjamin@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/12/07/2009-12-07_activists_say_antisame_sex_marriage_senators_should_run_for_hills_not_reelection.html?r=news&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nydnrss%2Fnews+%28News%29#ixzz0Z0fT80CM

Tom Duane interview

Emotional picture of the two of us.

Staten Island senator faces backlash over same-sex marriage vote | Staten Island Featured Entries - Breaking News - - SILive.com

log cabins rep doing what they should


Staten Island senator faces backlash over same-sex marriage vote | Staten Island Featured Entries - Breaking News - - SILive.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- State Sen. Andrew Lanza has sparked the ire of some fellow Republicans here -- including a former GOP chair -- with his vote against same-sex marriage.

While not mentioning Lanza (R-Staten Island) by name, Leticia Remauro said the "state Senate passed up a historic opportunity."

"A marriage license is a legally binding instrument between two adults who wish to merge their assets and form a family," said Ms. Remauro, who served as Staten Island Republican Party chairwoman. "Government should not have the power to deny this based on gender. I hope the Senate will reconsider."

Weighing in, too, was Tom McGinley, communications director of the Richmond County Young Republicans.

"To see not one senator from my own party stand up for equality was very disheartening," said McGinley. "I guess they forgot one of the main pillars of the Republican Party is that of limited government. This isn't only government interference, it is an attack on our civil rights as Americans."

Yesterday, Lanza joined GOP senators in voting as a block to defeat a bill that would have permitted marriage between same-sex couples. They were joined by eight conservative Democrats to nix the bill 38 to 24.

State Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn), who voted in favor of the measure, gave an impassioned and at times humorous endorsement of the bill on the Senate floor that has gotten more than 35,000 hits on YouTube and can be viewed on www.silive.com.



Lanza, who supports civil unions for gay and lesbian couples, told the Advance after the vote that he sat in his seat -- and didn't wander around the floor the way some members did -- while speeches in favor of passage were being made. He said he did so out respect for his "friend" state Sen. Tom Duane (D-Manhattan), the bill's prime sponsor.

But Duane has said he felt "betrayed" by some in the GOP, who he said told him they would vote in favor but then went back on their word. He has refused to say who those members were.

Lanza could not be immediately reached for comment on that point, nor could Duane.

Meanwhile, Staten Island Republican Brandon Linker, a 2008 alternate delegate for John McCain, also expressed disappointment with the vote, saying, "When this bill passes down the road and the dust settles, the Republican Party will be labeled the party that denied civil rights, a contradiction to our original libertarian values."

Interview with Robert after vote on marriage equality

Gay City News > Albany Delivers Staggering, Bitter Defeat

Gay City News > Albany Delivers Staggering, Bitter Defeat

BY PAUL SCHINDLER

Since May, Senator Thomas K. Duane, a Chelsea Democrat and the chamber’s only out gay member, has said he had the votes to pass the marriage equality bill he sponsors. The Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA), the state’s LGBT lobby, has similarly voiced confidence that a bipartisan majority in the 62-member house would vote yes. In October, Governor David A. Paterson, who introduced the legislation that has now passed the heavily Democratic Assembly three times, referring to the Senate’s Democratic conference leader, said, “Senator [John] Sampson I’ve heard on occasion say that he thinks the bill can pass.”

But on December 2, when the vote finally came up, it wasn’t even close. By a 38-24 margin, with no Republicans voting yes, the New York State Senate rejected marriage equality for same-sex couples.

There will be debate, likely even rancor, in the weeks and months ahead over what went wrong, whether the bill should have come up for a vote if it were destined to fail so decisively, and what to do next.

The immediate reaction, however, was stunned bitterness.

“I really can’t believe that they don't think my family is as important as theirs,” said Cathy-Marino-Thomas, communications director for Marriage Equality New York, as she stood up to leave the Senate gallery after the vote. “I really can’t believe that so many senators could sit there and here all that positive feedback, look at it, and still vote against us.” With her wife Sheila, Marino-Thomas is raising their ten-year-old daughter in Brooklyn.

Jeffrey Friedman, who is raising a six-year-old son with Andy Zwerin in Rockville Center, asked for his reaction, said, “Just true disappointment. I guess I’m speechless at the moment. They had a chance to do something great today and they chose not to.”

*
“We should be incredibly angry,” Duane told Gay City News. “I’m incredibly angry. I think the community should be very, very, very, very, very angry.”

Stating emphatically, “I’m not the one who ever lied throughout this entire process,” Duane charged that at least eight of his colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, had broken promises made to him, and said that he felt “betrayed.”

After initially declining to respond about what the consequences of such a betrayal are, Duane stated, “I believe in redemption and rehabilitation. No matter what people did today, we need to quickly provide them an opportunity to redeem themselves. That will get us the votes we had, that we have, and that we rightly deserve.”

Duane is not the only one who is alleging duplicitous behavior on the part of state senators. Paterson, who made the extraordinary gesture of going to the Senate floor after the vote, told Gay City News, “It’s very disappointing. It’s very disheartening. Certainly the promises that were made would have made it a much closer vote, if not a successful vote.”

The governor, too, signaled a strong commitment to soldier on.

“I am going to have to find a way to persuade these people to not be intimidated,” he said. “They will not suffer political damage, and it is the right thing to do. And that they will be on the right side of history rather than the wrong side, which is where they are now.”

Senator Kevin Parker, a Brooklyn Democrat, was less charitable toward those he believed had walked on their commitments.

“I’m profoundly disappointed and sad about the outcome, partly because many of us were given assurances that we had support from colleagues on both sides of the aisle who said they would vote for this today and did not,” he said. “I think this is the worst case of political cowardice that I’ve ever seen.”

Other Democrats supporting marriage equality focused on the lack of a single GOP vote in favor of the bill.

“Nobody on the Republican side believed this was the right thing to do –– or did they not vote their conscience?,” asked Manhattan Senator Liz Krueger, alluding to a commitment made months ago by Minority Leader Dean Skelos of Long Island to allow his members freedom in coming to their position on the legislation.

Jeff Cook, legislator advisor to the Log Cabin Republicans, challenged that analysis, arguing essentially the reverse.

“Unfortunately, the Democratic leadership promised to get us to a level where Republican support could put us over the top, and we just didn't get there today,” he told this reporter.

Both Duane and Alan Van Capelle, ESPA’s executive director, had consistently stressed the need for bipartisan support, and expressed confidence that it was building. With Bronx Democrat Ruben Diaz adamantly opposed –– the Pentecostal minister was the only senator who spoke against the bill during the floor debate (leaving the question of what motivated the other 37 no votes wide open) –– Democrats could not pass the bill by relying solely on their 32 members.

There was widespread speculation that at best 28 or 29 Democratic votes could be secured, which meant at least three Republicans had to be brought along.

If in fact some Republicans were taking a serious look at the legislation, it may have been the Democrats’ inability to muster more than 24 votes that led the GOP, after a bruising year in which control of the Senate changed party hands several times, to retreat from Skelos’ earlier commitment.

Certainly Van Capelle saved his strongest fire for a Democrat –– freshman Senator Joseph Addabbo of Queens.

“I think if there is disappointment in a real big way, I think I’m very disappointed in Joe Addabbo,” he said. “I think Joe Addabbo is better than his vote.”

Addabbo, who supported gay rights on the City Council and claimed an open mind on marriage equality in last fall’s campaign, was one of the prime recipients of support last fall from the Democratic State Senate Campaign Committee, to which the LGBT community made significant contributions. Addabbo also secured the maximum donation allowed –– $9,500 –– from software entrepreneur Tim Gill, founder of influential gay philanthropic and political action organizations.

Brian Foley, a freshman Democrat from Long Island, who was also uncommitted during last year’s campaign, supported the bill.

One defection was Queens freshman Democrat Hiram Monserrate, who is facing sentencing December 4 on a domestic violence conviction and also a primary challenge from the Queens Democratic organization. Monserrate, in his years on the City Council since 2001, was a vocal supporter of the LGBT community, and prior to his election to the Senate was on the record supporting equal marriage rights.

At 24 votes, gay advocates picked up precious little ground from where they were prior to last fall’s election that gave the Democrats a Senate majority, opening up for the first time the opportunity for a vote on the issue.

One significant gain, however, was Ruth Hassell-Thompson, an African-American Democrat whose district straddles the Bronx and Westchester, and was known to have religious reservations about the legislation. After a moving speech about her gay brother who was estranged from her family for decades, living in France, she said, “This vote is about giving people a choice. If there is condemnation in that choice, which there is in my church, that is between them and their God.”

Among the 18 Democrats who spoke about their support for the bill on the Senate floor, there was a consistent effort to emphasize that religious freedom was not at stake in passing the measure, and that marriage equality fit into the broader sweep of civil rights advances.

“I have religious beliefs, but when I walk through those doors, my Bible stays out,” African-American Senator Eric Adams of Brooklyn said. “You don't have to be gay to respect that two people who meet and fall in love deserve to be married. You don't have to be black to understand the pain of slavery.”

Craig Johnson, a second-term senator from Long Island, said the marriage bill “is not about an attack on religious freedom.” He added, “If it were, I know we would all stand shoulder to shoulder to fight that attack. This is a time for this body to shine.”

Manhattan’s Eric Schneiderman said, “You can’t legislate morality, but you can legislate justice… This is not a question of religion, it’s a matter of equality.

Jeffrey Klein of the Bronx talked about how his grandmother, who lost her entire family in the Holocaust, welcomed a young man into Klein’s family in New York after he was disowned by his own for being gay. “I saw hatred,” Klein recalled her saying. “He deserves to have somebody. He’s a good catch.”

Daniel Squadron, elected last year to represent Lower Manhattan and portions of Brooklyn, said his own recent marriage “has only added to my personal sense of responsibility” for delivering equal rights to gay and lesbian couples. The separation of civil law and religious belief, he said, enhances the quality of religious life in the US. Krueger said her family came to America “to escape pogroms… because this is the country that guarantees religious freedom.”

Bill Perkins, a Harlem Democrat, reiterated the civil rights thread of the debate, saying, “I can see Dr. Martin Luther King smiling down on us today.” José Serrano, who represents portions of Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, said, “History will once again prove this civil rights struggle right.”

In closing remarks in which he seemed to struggle to contain and convey the personal significance of the marriage equality question in his own life, Duane lamented what he said was the all too common view among legislators dealing with the state’s fiscal morass that “the time is never right for civil rights.” He added, “The paradox is that it’s always the right time to be on the right side of history.”

Diaz, for his part, closed by contradicting the argument that Adams of Brooklyn made, saying, “The Bible should never be left out.”

But that wasn’t the point of the day, according to Marty Rouse, the national field director for the Human Rights Campaign, the Washington-based LGBT lobby.

“This vote was not about religion, it was not about morality,” he said. “For a lot of people, especially those who were silent during the debate, it was all about politics. We need to play that political game smarter and more strategically, and we’re getting there, but there is still a long way to go.”

Pressed to say how the effort could have been “smarter,” Rouse said he would not Monday morning quarterback the lobbying, but did say that campaign contributions to an Addabbo, for example, are not the end of the matter.

“You can’t count on buying a vote,” he said. “We should have tried to get engaged in some of these Senate districts earlier. We need to be much more visible and strategic… find allies in these districts.”

None of the advocates or elected officials would say that pushing for the vote was a mistake or that they necessarily had to wait until after the 2010 elections to look for another bite of the apple.

“We asked for the chance to have our lives debated on the floor of the Senate and we decided that we wanted to get a roadmap for 2010, and we got what we wanted,” Van Capelle said, in a surprisingly upbeat spin on the day’s events. He added that it was too early to speculate on specific next steps.

Parker from Brooklyn echoed the value even in a losing vote.

“You at least know who the enemy is,” he said.

Cook, speaking for the Log Cabins, declined to rule out another Senate vote before next November. “We’ll see,” he said.

Asked when he would restart his colleague outreach, Duane said, “Immediately. Pressure should not decrease at all.”

In keeping with the moxie he demonstrated by coming down to the Senate after his bill was defeated, the governor said, “I’m the one who put the bill on the floor. You can blame me. I accept full responsibility. I thought this bill needed to be voted on. I thought up or down, this is a civil rights issue whose time has come. And I would put this bill out again next week if I thought there would be a different result.”

Asked if there were any point in trying to get another Senate vote next year, Paterson, not missing a beat, responded, “Yes. Winning.”

Christine Quinn, the out lesbian City Council speaker who was in Albany December 1 and 2 to help out in the final lobbying drive, was succinct in speaking to both the sadness and determination that labored to coexist late Wednesday afternoon.

"This is extraordinarily disappointing, no two ways about it,” she told Gay City News. “And people need to be disappointed. My father is 83 years old. Hopefully he’ll live to dance at my wedding. But I don't know, if they don't get to it in the next couple of years. But the only people who can ever declare us defeated is ourselves. So, we have to be disappointed, but we need to shake it off. We need to stay focused and keep people accountable."

Episcopal bishop approves priests’ role in same-sex marriages in Eastern Mass. - The Boston Globe

Episcopal bishop approves priests’ role in same-sex marriages in Eastern Mass. - The Boston Globe

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | November 30, 2009

Five years after same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts, the local Episcopal bishop yesterday gave permission for priests in Eastern Massachusetts to officiate at same-sex weddings.

The decision by Bishop M. Thomas Shaw III was immediately welcomed by advocates of gay rights in the Episcopal Church, who have chafed at local rules that allowed priests to bless same-sex couples, but not sign the documents that would solemnize their marriages.

The decision is likely to exacerbate tensions in the Episcopal Church and the global denomination to which it belongs, the Anglican Communion, which has faced significant division in the wake of the election of an openly gay priest as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.

“The time has come,’’ Shaw said in a telephone interview. “It’s time for us to offer to gay and lesbian people the same sacrament of fidelity that we offer to the heterosexual world.’’

Shaw, a longtime supporter of gay rights and same-sex marriage, had previously cited the Episcopal Church’s canons and prayer book in barring local priests from officiating at same-sex marriages, even after such unions became legal in Massachusetts in 2004.

But this month, clergy and laypeople at a diocesan convention endorsed a resolution expressing hope that Shaw would allow clergy to sign marriage licenses for same-sex couples. They cited legislation approved at the Episcopal Church’s general convention last summer declaring that “bishops, particularly those in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same- gender marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships are legal, may provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this Church.’’

Shaw said his diocese includes “a significant number of gay and lesbian clergy who are in partnerships,’’ and that “many of our parishes have significant numbers of gay and lesbian people.’’

The decision affects only Episcopalians in Eastern Massachusetts. A separate Episcopal diocese in Western Massachusetts has been more conservative on sexuality issues.

In a letter released yesterday to all Episcopal parishes, Shaw said that any Episcopal priest is free to decline to officiate at same-sex weddings.

“We know that not all are of one mind and that some in good faith will disagree with this decision,’’ Shaw wrote. “Our Anglican tradition makes space for this disagreement and calls us to respect and engage one another in our differences. It is through that tension that we find God’s ultimate will.’’

The Rev. Anne C. Fowler, an Episcopal priest who headed the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry, praised the decision yesterday.

In 2004, Fowler was one of a handful of local priests who broke church rules by officiating at a same-sex marriage. Her act of what she calls “ecclesiastical disobedience’’ earned her a warning in her file and since then, she said, she has followed the rules.

“I’m absolutely thrilled,’’ said Fowler, who is the rector of St. John’s Church in Jamaica Plain. “Now when we say we’re an inclusive church, we truly, fully, sacramentally are.’’

The Rev. Jeffrey Mello, an openly gay priest who serves as the rector of St. Paul’s Church in Brookline, said that when he announced Shaw’s decision in church yesterday, some parishioners cried, and many applauded.

The church’s rules had prevented any other Episcopal priest from presiding at his wedding. Fowler blessed Mello and his husband after a justice of the peace signed the paperwork in 2004.

“Do I wish this could have happened earlier? Sure,’’ Mello said. “But when I came out, I was 23, and I thought coming out meant I would never get married, I would never have a kid, and I would never be a priest. Now I’m married, I have a kid, and I’m a priest. It took as long as it needed to take.’’

Shaw said Episcopal priests should not use the wedding liturgy in the Episcopal Church’s prayer book to bless same-sex marriages because the language refers to the “joining together of this man and this woman.’’ Instead, he said, clergy should look to new Episcopal liturgies for same-sex marriages that are widely available on the Internet.

Episcopal dioceses in other states where same-sex marriage is legal are moving in a similar direction. The Episcopal dioceses of Iowa and Vermont, where same-sex marriage is also legal, have allowed clergy to officiate at same-sex weddings.

The Massachusetts Episcopal Diocese now joins a handful of other local religious denominations in which clergy may officiate at same-sex weddings, including the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the Reform and Reconstructionist movements of Judaism.

Many local religious denominations, including the Catholic Church, strongly oppose same-sex marriage and bar clergy from participating in such ceremonies.

There are relatively few vocal critics of same-sex marriage left in the local Episcopal Church because many conservatives have left the denomination to form or join alternative Anglican congregations. Significant portions of parishes in Attleboro, Franklin, Hamilton/Wenham, Marlborough, and West Newbury have now left the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, a development that Shaw calls “a tragedy.’’

Spokesmen for national conservative Anglican groups did not immediately respond to requests for comment yesterday.

Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.

NJ Catholic bishops campaign against gay marriage | AP | 11/28/2009

here we go the Catholic Church at it again.

NJ Catholic bishops campaign against gay marriage | AP | 11/28/2009



TRENTON, N.J. - Roman Catholics throughout New Jersey are being asked to pray that state lawmakers don't allow same-sex marriage.

It's part of a continuing campaign by church leaders, who anticipate a possible legislative vote before Republican Gov.-elect Chris Christie takes office Jan. 19.

The prayer suggestion is contained in a letter that bishops told priests to read or distribute this weekend. It restates Catholic teaching that marriage should only be allowed between a man and a woman and says prayer is timely "because marriage faces challenges from a society more focused on individual satisfaction than on the Gospel."

New Jersey recognizes civil unions for same-sex couples, and outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine, a socially liberal Democrat, has said he would sign a same-sex marriage bill. But Christie, a practicing Catholic, has said he would veto it.