ALBANY, New York, June 22, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – New York is reportedly inching closer to vote on a bill to legalize same-sex “marriage” in New York, which could happen as early as Wednesday night.
The Associated Press reports that Democrat and Republican leaders emerged from a meeting with Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo to say that they had made progress in their discussion over religious exemptions to the same-sex “marriage” bill.
Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) has expressed concern over the same-sex “marriage” bill producing unintended consequences, such as paving the way for lawsuits against private agencies and businesses that object to same-sex “marriage” on religious grounds.
The AP said, however, that a deal still had not yet been struck on a bill that would come to the floor of the Senate.
The Democrat-led Assembly has already approved same-sex “marriage” legislation, but is waiting on the GOP-controlled Senate to pass its own version.
New York’s Senate GOP conference is debating behind closed doors whether to allow a vote or kill the bill by blocking it from coming to a floor vote.
Two GOP Senators, Jim Alesi of Rochester, and Roy MacDonald of Saratoga Spring, have said they will cross the aisle to join with Democrats in supporting the bill. That puts the balance of the Senate at 31 – 31, since one Democrat, Sen. Ruben Diaz of the Bronx, is leading Republicans in a bid to stop same-sex “marriage.”
Whatever the GOP decides could have significant political ramifications for its future candidates. The influential Conservative Party has made it clear that a GOP decision to permit a vote on the bill would be a betrayal of the social conservative voters that helped them retake the Senate from Democrats in 2010, expecting them to prevent a same-sex “marriage” vote.
The potential narrative of GOP betrayal was fueled by statements from Alesi, who admitted publicly that he voted against same-sex “marriage” in 2009 only to help the GOP’s chances to regain the Senate in the 2010 election.
In New York State, candidates may run for election on multiple party lines, and losing an endorsement can be a critical blow to the vote total a candidate must accumulate to win.
Both Sen. Diaz and Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long have co-written a letter published on National Review Online, explaining that while they come from vastly different politics, they are united in their commitment to defend marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
Diaz and Long stated that the bill will only pass “because the GOP caved for no discernible good reason at all.” The winner, they said, would be Gov. Cuomo, who can use the issue to make him a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, while Republicans will lose political relevance just as happened when they voted to legalize abortion in 1970 under GOP Gov. Nelson Rockefeller.
“The decision of senate Republicans to take up this bill, and thus help enable Governor Cuomo’s goal to pass gay marriage, will affect the way voters across the state view the Republican party — especially if Republican state senators told voters one thing during the campaign, and now propose to change their votes at Governor Cuomo’s behest,” they wrote.
The pair said that Republicans would be wiser to put the issue of legalizing same-sex “marriage” before the people of New York, passing a bill that would allow a voter referendum.
If a deal is reached, New York could see a vote on same-sex “marriage” either Wednesday evening or Thursday.
Read Ruben Diaz and Michael Long’s letter on NRO.
Contact information for New York Senators may be found here.