Yesterday, the New York State Assembly passed the same-sex marriage legislation by a margin of 89 - 52. It's the second time the Assembly has passed this bill in 2007. This year, the battle is in the State Senate, which is under Democratic control for the first time in decades. And, it is going to be a battle in the Senate. If you live in New York, start call and email your Senator today. The Empire State Pride Agenda makes it easy here.
We want to congratulate Danny O'Donnell, the Assemblyman who led the effort to pass the bill. Danny was profiled in the New York Times yesterday:
Each week, Mr. O’Donnell delivers color-coded spreadsheets to the Assembly speaker’s senior staff — names in green are yes votes, red are no votes, and purple indicates maybe. He has written personalized letters to all 149 of his Assembly colleagues, sometimes adding lines like “Doesn’t your wife want to come to my wedding?” when he thinks it would be helpful.Not only did Danny oversee passage of the bill yesterday, he and John had their engagement party last night in Albany, too.
For Mr. O’Donnell, the lobbying is intensely personal. When he has been unable to persuade colleagues to vote yes, he has sent his partner, John Banta, director of special events for the Metropolitan Opera, to try instead.
The two men met as freshmen at Catholic University in 1978, began dating two years later and have been together ever since. Mr. O’Donnell frequently brings Mr. Banta along to legislative gatherings, he said, so his colleagues could see what a gay couple looks like.
“That wasn’t accidental,” he explained, adding: “I knew if I wanted my colleagues to treat me and treat my community with equality, they would have to see John and I through the prism of a relationship.”
UPDATE: Media Matters just released a video compilation of crazy talk about marriage from the right wing crazies. Wow, these people are sick -- and just bizarrely obsessed with this subject:
