SENATE GOP LOOKING FOR LEVERAGE ON THE RENT ISSUE; HOLDING MARRIAGE VOTE HOSTAGE

COMING SOON:  MARRIAGE EQUALITY
Rochester area activist and Pride At Work member Anne Tischer proudly
displays confidence that marriage equality will one day be legal in the Empire State.
photo: Bess Watts

Albany, N.Y.--  Unlike last week, when the major story every day at the state capitol building was the Senate Republican majority’s inconclusive discussions about whether to allow a vote on the marriage bill--  approved last Wednesday evening by the Assembly-- the attention on Monday was mostly focused on whether a rent agreement had been reached.

Late yesterday afternoon, some legislators were saying publicly that the rent guidelines would not get another temporary extension, suggesting the Senate and Assembly would work long into the night and forge an agreement. Instead, GOP Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver emerged from a meeting with the governor to announce they were still far apart and a subsequent vote approved the one-day fix instead.

For three successive days at the end of last week, Skelos spoke to reporters after meeting with his Republican colleagues to signal they were not yet prepared to move the marriage legislation-- which has 31 public supporters of the 32 needed, including two of the 32 Republicans. On Monday, however, a number of GOP and Democratic senators made comments about taking up the marriage question only after the rent deal was resolved.

photo:  Ove Overmyer

The clear implication of that was that while the Republicans were looking for leverage on the rent issue, an eventual vote on marriage was widely expected.

Over the past six days, a group of three Republicans who say they are undecided-- Stephen Saland of Poughkeepsie, Andrew Lanza of Staten Island, and Long Island’s Kemp Hannon-- have been in discussions with Cuomo over what they say is the need for greater religious protections in the bill the governor proposed last week.

That three lawmakers sat down with Cuomo early Monday.

Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell, the lead sponsor of marriage equality in the Assembly, told reporters on Saturday that any revised language would reflect provisions already in New York law-- made explicit in the context of marriage equality by incorporating them into the bill approved.

“I can assure you that my speaker [Silver], this governor, this governor’s secretary, this governor’s counsel, and I would never, ever agree to write discrimination into this bill,” he said. “There will not be in there any language that reflects a reduction in the rights of gay people.”

Cuomo has repeatedly said that if the bill is allowed to go to the Senate floor for debate and a vote, he is confident of prevailing.

It is expected that if Republican concerns about religious protections are addressed to their satisfaction, one or more of the three senators negotiating the issue with the governor will provide the margin of victory.

Marriage Equality supporters gather at the West Capitol
Park on May 9, 2011 at Equality & Justice Day.
photo:  Ove Overmyer

As New York's progressive community waits, activists have staged a number of rallies in recent days.

Meanwhile, marriage equality supporters like Rochester resident and Pride At Work member Anne Tischer and the New Yorkers United for Marriage Equality, the coalition of leading union and LGBT advocacy groups leading the charge in Albany, were out in full force today. 

They planned a rally at the West Capitol Park this afternoon, which is immediately adjacent to the Capitol Building where the lawmakers are struggling to find a way out of this legislative quagmire.