New York Senate has the votes to pass marriage equality!

[FreeState]

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/13529/duane-gay-marriage-has-senate-gop-supporters

Duane: Gay marriage has Senate GOP supporters
April 14, 2009 at 4:05 pm by Irene Jay Liu
Sen. Tom Duane said that he is confident that a bill to legalize same-sex marriage will pass this year, and that it will pass with bipartisan support.

Gov. David Paterson is expected to introduce a program bill that would allow same-sex couples to marry in New York State. It will be identical to the bill first introduced by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2007 which passed at the end of the 2007 legislative session, according to Assembly bill sponsor Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell.

O’Donnell will take up the bill as lead sponsor in the Assembly; Duane will take up the bill in the Senate and said he is confident that it will pass this year.

“I always knew that this would happen with bipartisan support. And it is always about building more and more support. We are not going to do this just with a majority, but a majority with extra votes,” said Duane.

“I don’t have the exact time frame. But it will be this year,” he added.

snip...

Duane said that he did not think that those unnamed senators would renege on their commitment to him, based on Republicans’ history of passing bills such as the hate crimes bill of 2000 and the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA), which passed in 2002.

“I really look at the history with what happened with hate crimes and what happened with SONDA. Republicans said they would vote for the bills and Republicans did vote for those bills,” Duane said.

..snip...