Gay marriage bill is a proud accomplishment

Editorial

Gay marriage bill is a proud accomplishment

When he ran for governor, Democrat Eliot Spitzer pledged to enact marriage equality legislation. As it looked to the new legislative session that began in January, the Empire State Pride Agenda, a leading statewide LGBT civil rights organization, said it would get a State Assembly vote on same-sex marriage rights this year. When Daniel O’Donnell, the out gay Upper West Side Assembly Democrat, assumed sponsorship of the Spitzer amarriage bill on May 1, he said it was critical that someone who would be personally affected by the legislation lobby his or her colleagues and that he would do everything he could to win a vote by the end of June.

On Tuesday, 85 members of the Assembly—nearly 57 percent—stood up in acknowledgment of the dignity and equality of same-sex marriage.

Spitzer delivered on his promise to propose a bill with the imprimatur of the governor, the Pride Agenda worked tirelessly to court legislators and mobilize support on the ground statewide, and O’Donnell won the day as well as the unalloyed respect of his colleagues for the grace he brought to his advocacy.

“Love found me in the body of a man,” he told his colleagues last Tuesday evening on the floor of the Assembly. “I could not have survived my late teens and my 20s if I did not have John Banta in my life. What I learned from him was that I should love myself. No one believed in me, no one taught me what he has taught me.”

It was momentous, to say that least, to witness a gay man on the floor of a state legislative chamber speaking in such passionate terms about the love he feels for and from his longstanding partner. Daniel O’Donnell spoke for every gay man and woman at that historic moment, and did so eloquently and forcefully.
As for the Pride Agenda, testimony from transgender activists reminds us of how much work remains to be done until there is full equality for all LGBT New Yorkers—even if the Republican Senate were to follow the Assembly lead on marriage equality tomorrow.

But the team that Alan Van Capelle leads at the Pride Agenda, buffered most visibly by Joe Tarver in New York and Ross Levi in Albany, is surely one of the smartest and hardest-working groups of advocates engaged in the gay civil rights movement. They successfully kept the gay marriage issue visible not only in Albany but in communities and newspapers across the state, and in the process, garnered endorsements from large numbers of religious and labor leaders throughout New York.

Finally, the governor honored his pledge by moving the issue as quickly as anyone could have hoped. Whatever other differences the gay community may have with him, Eliot Spitzer deserves real credit this Pride season.

As the gay community and its allies celebrate this latest milestone, let’s remember that much more work remains to be done to make marriage equality a fait accompli in New York state. The Republican Senate, led by Speaker Joe Bruno, will not move the marriage measure without significant pressure from residents, politicians, the media and other stakeholders throughout the state. Now that the momentum has shifted, we call on all to keep up the pressure.