This past Wednesday, in yet another “extraordinary session” – that’s where the Governor tells the Legislature they haven’t done their job and they need to come back to work – the New York State Senate, after finally looking at the huge budget shortfalls the state is facing, took on the issue of same sex marriage.
Of course, we all know the outcome.
Thirty-eight Senators, including thirty Republicans, and eight Democrats – now known collectively as the “Hate 38” – voted against gay marriage. They voted against fairness, equality, and reason.
The New York Assembly, the night before, and for the third time, in an effort to encourage and speed up the Senate’s passage of the bill, voted to allow same sex couples the right to marry. The hope was that, having passed the bill, the Senate would too, and the Governor would sign it into law immediately.
That didn’t happen.
The Senate, in the face of mounting debt and budget cuts, voted against gay marriage, and with it, the two hundred ten million dollars (over three years) that would have come to the state in revenue. That’s right. The New York State Senate, after finally addressing the huge budget shortfalls the state is facing, looked $210,000,000 in the face and said, “No thanks.”
To understand the immense short-sightedness of their decision, it’s important to look at the facts. Let’s start with geography.
As you can see, the state of New York is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. And further east, New Hampshire. All states where same sex couples can marry. Not to mention, Canada to the north borders New York, and same sex couples can marry there as well. In addition to that, the New York Senate knew that (and some say actually had a deal with) New Jersey would be voting on gay marriage right after the November elections.
So, after working for weeks on the budget the Senate went and threw out a guaranteed $210,000,000.
They let $210,000,000Â go out the window – and across the border to Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, over to New Hampshire, and probably, after next week, over to New Jersey.
(By the way, gay marriage will bring $500,000,000 to the coffers of New Jersey.)
And here’s the even more ridiculous piece: gay marriage is legally recognized in New York State.
That’s right. Any same sex couple can travel across the state line, get married, and have their marriage legally recognized by the very same state that refuses to allow them to marry within the borders of their home state.
What’s the point?
If you look at it logically, there’s only one conclusion you can draw: ignorance, hatred, and bigotry. OK, that’s three. But they all add up to the same thing: No marriage equality for same sex couples because thirty eight elected officials in New York are motivated by fear and hatred. Or, their ties to special interest groups, like Maggie Gallagher’s National Organization for Marriage (NOM,) which spent a reported $600,000 in New York to fight the gay marriage bill.
Their fear and hatred of New York’s LGBTQ community has now spread over and impacted all New Yorkers – by depriving them of a state where equality, integrity, and fairness are the law of the land, and where an additional $210,000,000 could have been used to support the state’s failing economy. Increased taxes, reduced public services, teacher layoffs, education cutbacks, delayed service improvements: these are the result of budget shortfalls. What could $210,000,000 have prevented?
All this means they are the wrong people to represent us.
While I don’t believe in “majority rules,” it bears keeping in mind that the same day the New York State Senate voted to kill the gay marriage bill, Marist released a poll stating fifty-one percent of New Yorkers approved of the bill – and same sex marriage.
That’s right folks: A majority of New Yorkers favor allowing same sex couples the right to wed.
The message is simple. It’s time to vote out of office the “Hate 38.”