BREAKING: New York Senate gay ‘marriage’ vote set for Friday night
ALBANY, New York, June 24, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Republicans in the state Senate have decided that they will allow an up or down vote on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s bill to legalize same-sex “marriage.”
Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) stated Friday afternoon that the Senate will now vote on a same-sex “marriage” bill with additional religious liberty exemptions in it.
Skelos said the GOP-led Senate will have a conscience vote, which will take place at an undetermined time this Friday evening.
“After many hours of deliberation and discussion over the past several weeks among the members, it has been decided that same-sex marriage legislation will be brought to the full Senate for an up or down vote,” Skelos said in a statement, reported by the New York Times.
The bill has 31 Senators committed to legalizing same-sex “marriage”, including 29 out of the chamber’s 30 Democrats, and two Republicans.
Same-sex “marriage” supporters need one more of the Republican undecideds to join them in order for the bill to pass. According to reports, Sen. Mark Grisanti (R-Buffalo), and Sen. Stephen Saland (R-Poughkeepsie) are the remaining GOP undecideds who could cast the 32nd vote Cuomo needs to pass the legislation.
The Assembly has already passed their own same-sex “marriage” bill and Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) has stated that the Assembly will approve whatever comes out of the Senate.
Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage criticized the religious liberty language in the bill, saying that it does not guarantee that religious entities will not be forced with the choice of going out of business or violating core beliefs, as has happened in other states which have legalized same-sex “marriage.”
“This is deceptive language that does not do what it promises,” said Brown. “NOM has run this bill by several religious liberty scholars and they say they cannot even tell whether the language will permit Catholic adoption agencies to stay in business.”
Brown said the state’s religious liberty law is “extremely complicated” and stated that if the New York legislature were committed to religious liberty they should scrap the bill and “insist on a process that allows fair and full review.”
Cuomo has expressed confidence that his legislation will pass when the votes are finally counted.
If New York legalizes same-sex “marriage” it will become the sixth and largest state to revise the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples.
Contact information for New York Senators is available here.