Gay rights' coalition eyes key LI races to advance marriage agenda -- Newsday.com

Gay rights' coalition eyes key LI races to advance marriage agenda -- Newsday.com


BY EMERSON CLARRIDGE
mailto:emerson.clarridge@newsday.com?subject=Newsday.com
5:21 PM EST, January 23, 2008

A coalition of politically active gay rights groups will gather at a Rockville Centre synagogue Wednesday night to explain its strategy to oust state lawmakers they said have blocked legislation supporting same-sex marriage.Prior to the meeting, leaders of the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay rights organization, said they plan to focus on a few key Long Island races, but they declined to name the candidates involved."The future of marriage equality could very well be decided on Long Island this November," said Marty Rouse, who grew up in Hauppauge and is now the HRC's national field director.The groups plan to meet at 7 p.m. at the Central Synagogue of Nassau County. The meeting is open to the public.The HRC and other gay rights groups hailed the June 19 passage of a bill in the state Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats. It also had the support of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, also a Democrat. The celebration was short-lived, however, because state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick) did not schedule debate on the measure, and it died.Now, Bruno and other senate Republicans have been targeted by the HRC."If and when the leadership changes, the votes will be there," Rouse said.Rouse said the meeting would be an opportunity for Long Islanders to learn what they can do to propel same-sex marriage to the forefront of public discourse.Because they are unable legally to marry, same-sex couples are denied medical decision-making authority, inheritance rights and the ability to adopt children as a couple, said officials from the Empire State Pride Agenda, an advocacy group that will also have representatives at the meeting.Massachusetts is the only state to recognize same-sex unions, and it did so through a court decision.
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