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发帖数: 19713 | 1 One More to Go: 31 Votes for Marriage Equality in New York
By Julie Bolcer
ROY MCDONALD X390 (NYSGOV) | ADVOCATE.COM
Roy McDonald became the second Republican state senator to say he would vote
yes on the marriage equality bill pending before the state legislature,
bringing the number of senators who support the measure to 31, just one vote
shy of the number needed for passage.
According to The New York Times, McDonald, who represents Long Island, told
reporters in Albany on Tuesday that, “I think I’m doing the right thing,
it’s the appropriate thing, and if the public respects that, I’m grateful.
If they don’t, then I move on.”
The announcement from McDonald followed that of his colleague James Alesi,
who became the first Republican state senator to voice support for the bill
on Monday. Alesi and McDonald both voted against the bill when it failed in
the senate in 2009 after passing the assembly.
McDonald announced his support after Gov. Andrew Cuomo submitted a program
bill with language that exempts religious institutions from solemnizing or
providing facilities for same-sex couples to marry or celebrate weddings, an
issue raised mostly by Republican state senator Greg Ball as a reason to
oppose the bill. If Republican leadership decides to bring the bill to the
floor, it could be voted on before the end of the week and become law 30
days after passing.
In a telephone conversation with The Advocate on Tuesday, Assemblymember
Daniel O’Donnell, the openly gay lead sponsor of the marriage equality bill
in the assembly, said the religious exemption language included in the
governor’s bill only makes explicit carveouts that already exist in the
state’s Human Rights Law.
“This is only spelling out what already exists in law,” he said. “This
bill will do nothing to impact on those exemptions as they currently exist.
The language that was put into this bill is language that already exists. It
is a component of the Human rights law. All this bill really does is
reference what the current Human Rights Law already says. It is not creating
anything additional."
O'Donnell, who said his chamber would vote on the governor's bill,
anticipated the process would unfold expeditiously over the next few days. |
