Filed under: Race and Civil Rights
As forces for and against a gay marriage bill in New York have rallied their constituencies in hopes of swaying or securing last-minute support, the legislative session has drawn to a close, delaying a vote on the bill and forcing the legislature to extend the session to deal with it and other key pieces of legislation.
Legislative leaders had worked out tentative deals on a number of issues on Tuesday, including the renewal of the state's rent laws, raising tuition at state universities and capping property taxes for homeowners.
But the gay marriage bill remains a thorny issue, as lawmakers haggle over key points of the legislation, including exemptions for religious organizations, which is a selling point for many Republicans in the Republican-led senate. The Senate majority leader, Dean G. Skelos, a Republican from Long Island, said that his caucus had yet to decide if and when it will bring the bill to a vote, according to the New York Times. The Democrat-led State Assembly has already passed the measure.
Thirty-one state senators have already agreed to endorse the bill, just one vote short of the number needed for it to pass.
While some have found it distasteful to in any way liken the historic plight of blacks to that of gays, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged Republicans to vote for the bill, saying in a statement:
"At our founding, African-Americans were held in bondage. Catholics in New York could not hold office. Those without property could not vote. Women could not vote or hold office. And homosexuality, in some places, was a crime punishable by death," he said. "Every generation has expanded upon the freedoms won by their parents and grandparents," he said.
"And the next great barrier standing before our generation is the prohibition on marriage for same-sex couples."
While support of the bill has been divided largely along political and party lines, divisions seem to also have been drawn along religious lines, as an unlikely front of Republicans, Tea Party Patriots and African-American clergy have formed.
Members of the groups met in throngs in the corridors of the Capitol building last week to protest the bill, introduced by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, according to the Albany Times Union.
"I've been here for the last week," Willie Stovall, a minister at Albany's Mt. Olive Baptist Church, told the newspaper, as others opposing the bill gathered and chanted around him. But, as the paper reported, the front makes for a problematic relationship. Outside of their opposition to marriage equality, they have little else in common, at least politically.
The Rev. Arthur Anthony Harris of the Rescue Mission Baptist Church in Harlem, a member of the Baptist Ministers Conference of Greater New York & Vicinity, said in a phone interview that while he and many of his brothers of the cloth have no problem with individual gays, they could not in good faith support a lifestyle that goes against their religious convictions.
"I didn't make up these words," he said. "These are the words of God. If I'm going to preach the gospel, I'm going to be held accountable to God and my congregation," said Harris. "It's not a political thing. I'm not against gay people, but I cannot sanction it because that's not what God said."
And what if the bill passes?
"If it passes I have no problem with that," he said, "I just will not perform those ceremonies."
But with all the voices clamoring, there still remains wide support for a bill that many see not as an issue of gay rights, but of equal rights, and so its passage could have a particular impact on the black and brown community.
"Black or Latino gay couples are twice as likely as their white counterparts to be raising children. They are also more likely to be economically disadvantaged. Marriage equality gives these families and others the protections that will allow them to provide for their loved ones, including the ability to adopt, hospital visitation, medical decision-making power and access to family insurance policies," said Kimberley McLeod, a spokeswoman for GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
"A victory in New York would set a powerful example for the rest of the country. It will show that New Yorkers want what all Americans want, which is to take care of the people they love and to protect their families."