Friday, December 4, 2009

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

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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."

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