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Same-Sex Marriage: New York Assembly Passes Marriage Equality Bill – Details

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Wednesday afternoon, into the evening, the 150-member New York State Assembly debated Governor Cuomo’s marriage equality bill. As expected, the bill passed, 80-63, just after 9:00 PM. And as expected, opponents cited God, religion, their desire to preserve traditional marriage as reasons for voting against equality, while supporters of the bill delivered strong responses to those who believe in traditional marriage.

The New York Senate has yet to decide if or when it will vote on the bill too. The previous same-sex marriage bill passed the Assembly on May 12, 2009, by a much wider margin, 89-52, but many seats have changed since. The Senate may vote on Friday. Governor Cuomo, who proposed the bill and has lobbied behind the scenes heavily, according to reports, would of course sign it into law.

In a surprising turn, Nick Perry (D), who voted three times before against marriage equality, said he spoke to his constituents and that, “While they believe in traditional marriage, the freedom to live the life you choose to make you happy is a right everyone should enjoy.” Saying, “It was sacrilegious to think that the world was round,” Perry voted for the bill, to one of the rare rounds of applause, including a large smile from Speaker Sheldon Silver.

READ: Archbishop: If Marriage Equality Law Passes NY Will Be Like North Korea

“Marriage has been defined since the beginning of this country,” Danny O’Donnell (D), who has now sponsored four marriage equality bills, reminded his fellow Assemblymen. “This is the body that has always done that.”

“A Senator in the House across who came out and said, ‘I’m going to vote for this,’ has been the subject of death threats, and yet, I listen to you complain that somebody called you names? Somebody called you names? Have you ever been the subject of a gay-bashing?,” O’Donnell (photo, above,) asked. He reminded the Assembly that “Under God was added to our pledge of allegiance in the ’50s, in the McCarthy era.”

Harry Bronson (D) the Assembly’s first openly-gay member not from New York City, told the chamber that not having the right to marry makes same-sex relationships less stable.

Republican Donald Miller, who detailed how Britain’s Alan Touring, “who invented the computer,” was a “homosexual,” and committed suicide two years after serving time for the crime of being gay. Miller told the chamber “we have done many wrong things,” and then said, in a true twist of logic, that passing this marriage equality bill was one of those “wrong things.”

Republican Nancy Calhoun stated that “We have the obligation to give equality in all ways,” but that she would vote against the bill, in part, “because we, the Republicans, cannot bring bills to the floor… this is not equality.” The Republicans are currently the minority in the Assembly.

“I say to you I cannot in this tenor support taking away marriage, it has a separate importance and it has to do with a man and a woman,” Calhoun stated, adding, “what we are doing today is not right. We are changing an institution of marriage. We are going to change it from what it was intended, a man and a woman.”

Democrat Naomi Rivera, who represents The Bronx, in perhaps one of the most passionate statements, said, she received 1188 emails, 936 phone calls, and over 300 letters, “asking me to vote against this bill. I happen to live in the heart of the district of the only Democratic Senator who will be voting against this bill.”

“How do I vote? Do I vote my conscience? Was i elected to vote the voice of my constituents?”

“The last time I voted, and I have always voted in support of marriage equality, was on the cusp of a re-election, and I was very concerned.”

“I had appealed to the LGBT community, and, (Rivera, pausing,) not a check, not a body, and I felt alone.”

Rivera detailed her conversations with her father, her mother — a Jehovah’s witness —  and her young son. Rivera’s father is New York Assemblyman Jose Rivera, and her brother is New York City Councilman Joel Rivera.

“What is the message that I’m going to give to my son about love, religion, marriage?”

“I’ve been given the responsibility to provide leadership in my community. I’ve been given the responsibility to help pave the way for the future generation for my son. I want him to remember that he should always take a stand, and it is to stand up for justice and equality for all,” Rivera said.

“I had felt alone, but I don’t feel alone.” Rivera voted for marriage equality.

READ: NY: Cuomo Unveils Marriage Equality Bill With Deep Religious Exemptions

Democrat Richard Gottfried, the longest-serving member of the Assembly, stood and imitated those voting against the bill, saying, “Do not presume that your kind is fit to join our club, but don’t try to join our cliub. Our club is too important for your kind to join.”

“It is hard to imagine a more profoundly insulting and degrading and disrespectful statement to make than to say ‘your kind is not fit to join the institution of marriage,’ that I think we all recognize as a fundamental human right.” The Assemblyman, who has served 40 years, spoke of strong families, and that marriage strengthens families, and therefore marriage equality “helps to build a stronger New York.”

Democrat Micah Kellner told the chamber that when he proposed, he immediately told his fiance that they would have to wait until marriage equality was legal in New York.

Dean Murray (R), voting no, said, “I’m a conservative I’m extremely proud of that.”  “If same-sex marriage does not pass tonight I don’t think it’s going to mean… that anyone’s love will be lessened.” Murray claimed that supporting only traditional marriage does not make him a bigot nor does it make him less tolerant.

Taking a false swipe at President Obama, Steve McLaughlin said, “I don’t believe I’m a bigot, it doesn’t make me a bigot, it makes me a traditional marriter.” McLaughlin told the chamber, falsely, that Obama changed his mind on the constitutionality of DOMA. “There’s no push for gay marriage in Britain,” McLaughlin falsely claimed, citing Britain’s extension of some domestic partnership benefits.

 

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News

‘On Day One’: Trump Vows to End Protections for LGBTQ Students

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May 10, 2024

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Donald Trump says the day he enters the Oval Office for a second term he will end anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students implemented by the Biden administration.

Serving up a scattershot series of complaints with the hosts from the Philadelphia-based right-wing talk radio show “Kayal and Company” on Friday, Trump compared LGBTQ+ protections to a “cuckoo’s nest.”

“A lot of things don’t make sense, having to do with what they’re doing, from the border to all of the men playing in women’s sports. I mean, the world is like a cuckoo’s nest right now with what they do,” Trump declared.

One of the hosts alleged President Joe Biden has engaged in “manipulation” of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. She claimed parents now have to “pinch some pennies” to be able to afford private Christian schools for their children, to remove them from the enhancements that go into effect this summer.

“Many schools are grappling with what they’re going to do,” she said, “because as of August 1, as you know, because of Biden’s manipulation of Title IX, these kids, the school boards, have no choice, they’re meeting right now they, many of them perplexed, and they don’t know what to do, Mr. President, because they’re so upset over this that at August 1 a biological boy can change in a locker room.”

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Trump replied, “It’s crazy. Crazy.”

“We’re going to end it on day one,” Trump vowed. “We’re going to change it on day one. It’s going to be changed. We’re going to end it. That’s right.”

“The whole thing is crazy. Look, it’s like men playing in women’s sports. It’s like open borders for the world to come in. Send all their prisoners. We’ll take as many as you can give us. Send all their people from mental institutions.”

“We’ll get that changed. Tell your people not to worry about it. It’ll be signed on day one. It will be terminated,” Trump promised, vowing to end the LGBTQ+ protections which include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.

On his first day in office, President Biden implemented “the most far-reaching of any federal protections yet” for LGBTQ+ people, according to NPR.

In an explainer on the new expanded rules, Ms. Magazine reports “The 2024 regulations prohibit discrimination not only on the basis of sex, but also on the basis of sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”

According to GLAAD, which is tracking “the Biden administration’s executive orders, legislative support, speeches and nominations that affect LGBTQ people and rights,” President Biden has made 337 “moves” in 1206 days.

Listen to a short clip below or at this link.

READ MORE: Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict

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Ari Fleischer Offers Donald Trump Advice Attorney Says ‘Effectively’ Violates Gag Order

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May 10, 2024

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A Fox News panel discussing the Trump New York criminal trial debated whether or not the indicted ex-president could attack the judge’s daughter, with former Bush 43 press secretary Ari Fleischer insisting he should, and claiming doing so would not violate the terms of the gag order.

“President Trump needs to stop calling the judge ‘conflicted.’ He needs to explain why he’s conflicted,” Fleischer said Friday to a panel that included former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. “Every day of the trial he goes in there, he says, ‘the judge is conflicted, conflicted bigger than I’ve ever seen anywhere in my life.’ He doesn’t explain how or why. He needs to say that the judge’s daughter works for a Democratic political consulting firm that does anti-Trump business. He needs to explain it. Otherwise, it’s just an assertion with no proof. And the President if he’s going to say it, back it up. Explain.”

“I think that’s a violation of the gag order, is it not?” a Fox panelist replied.

“No, he can criticize the judge,” McEnany responded.

READ MORE: Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict

“Not the judge but the family,” the panelist added.

“But when he says the judge is conflicted, you can still explain how and why, and I think comply with a gag,” Fleischer insisted.

The panelists then agreed Donald Trump has been “measured” in his remarks.

National security attorney Brad Moss weighed in on social media, posting the relevant portion of the gag order and writing that Fleischer “effectively recommends Trump violate the terms of the gag order.”

The gag order in part reads: “Defendant is directed to refrain from” … “Making or directing others to make public statements about (1) counsel in the case other than the District Attorney, (2) members of the court’s staff and the District Attorney’s staff, or (3) the family members of any counsel, staff member, the Court or the District Attorney, if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with, or to cause others to materially interfere with, counsel’s or staffs work in this criminal case, or with the knowledge that such interference is likely to result.”

Despite Trump’s repeated attacks, an ethics panel last year cleared Judge Juan Merchan of any issues surrounding his daughter’s work.

On Monday, Judge Merchan warned Trump he may throw him in jail if he violates the gag order again.

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Undisguised Corruption’: Critics Slam Trump for ‘Selling the White House’ to Big Oil

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Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict

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3 days ago

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May 10, 2024

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A federal appeals court panel of three judges has upheld the criminal contempt of Congress conviction of Steve Bannon, the far-right provocateur and former Trump chief strategist and senior White House advisor. Legal experts say he can appeal but ultimately he will he headed to prison.

Bannon had refused to comply with a subpoena lawfully-issued by the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.

“Bannon was sentenced to four months in jail in 2022 by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols after a jury convicted him of two counts of contempt of Congress,” Politico reports Friday. “But Nichols, a Trump appointee, agreed to postpone the jail term while Bannon appealed the decision, agreeing that the complex mix of laws that govern executive privilege and testimonial immunity for White House aides could be overturned by higher courts.”

The appeals court panel includes judges appointed by President Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden, according to CNN’s Zachary Cohen.

In their ruling the judges wrote: “Public accounts indicated that Bannon had predicted on a January 5, 2021 podcast that ‘all hell [wa]s going to break loose’ the next day,” and noted, “In addition to the podcast prediction, Bannon had reportedly participated in discussions in late 2020 and early 2021 about efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.”

READ MORE: House Ethics Committee Extends Investigation Into ‘Ultra MAGA’ Congressman

Politico noted the “three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Bannon’s argument, saying the former aide and prominent podcaster had no legal rationale for his blanket refusal to appeal before the Jan. 6 committee — and that long-standing case law.”

Bannon is a peddler of conspiracy theories whose podcast “was crowned the top peddler of false, misleading and unsubstantiated statements among political podcasts,” according to The New York Times, citing a Brookings study.

“Bannon is unlikely to have to report to prison immediately,” NBC News reports.

Legal experts weighed in on the question of prison for Bannon.

READ MORE: ‘Undisguised Corruption’: Critics Slam Trump for ‘Selling the White House’ to Big Oil

“And now it’s time for Bannon to be given a date to report to the federal Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his sentence,” remarked MSNBC and NBC News legal analyst Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor.

“Bannon is effectively out of appeals,” observed professor of law and MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance, former U.S. Attorney. “He can delay a little bit longer, asking for the full court to review the decision en banc & asking SCOTUS to hear his case on cert, but neither one of those things will happen. Bannon is going to prison.”

Professor of law and former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter remarked, “it’s slammer time.”

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