UPDATE: Rallies grow as NY Senate weighs gay marriage vote

[w8liftinglady]

http://www.365gay.com/news/rallies-grow-as-ny-senate-weighs-gay-marriage-vote/

(Albany, NY) Hundreds of raucous demonstrators on both sides of the divisive gay-marriage debate jammed the usually sedate halls of New York’s Capitol on Monday as Senate Republicans, who can determine the measure’s fate, consider whether to schedule a decisive vote on the issue.

New York’s vote is seen as pivotal in the national question over same-sex marriage, an effort that largely stalled in the same room two years ago when the Senate voted it down. Since then, efforts have failed in New Jersey, Rhode Island and Maryland. Advocates hope a “yes” vote in the nation’s third most-populous state jumpstarts the effort.

On Monday, groups led by clergy opposed to same-sex marriage sang hymns such as “Victory is Mine” and prayed in small circles while pro-same-sex marriage advocates countered with “God Bless America” and lined the halls and parlor outside the Senate chamber.

State troopers were called to the Senate chamber floor as the two groups started to merge and argue with each other, but there were no immediate threats of escalation, only debate. There were no threats and senators moved unmolested from the elevators to their conference room on the Capitol’s stately and normally staid third floor.

“This is not about religion, this is about civil rights,” Sharon Baum of New York City said.

She was soon confronted by a woman opposed to gay marriage.

“If this passes, we will become Sodom and Gomorrah,” said 80-year-old Ginny Winn, of Delmar in Albany County.

Senate Republicans, who control the chamber, were scheduled to meet behind closed doors Monday. They could call for a floor vote Monday, or it could still be a day or two away.

The Assembly has already passed the measure. Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he will sign it.

[Doctor Hurt]

1. It's not going to happen, at least today

:(

[LibertyLover]

2. I bet that it gets tabled -

similar to what happened in the Maryland Senate this legislative session with our gay marriage bill. Legislators who had supported the legislation suddenly "heard their constituents" and announced that while they agreed with the concept of equal rights for all, their religiously conservative constituents did not like the idea of equal rights for gays and lesbians and they had to listen to them. Which can be translated from Legislatorese and understood to mean "if I vote for this bill, my ass will be toast in the next election when Minister X or Bishop Y "reminds" their flocks that I voted for "the gay"". There is a wonderful line from the movie "1776" that I am reminded of - Dr. Lyman Hall, the new representative to the Continental Congress from Georgia, as he is telling John Adams that he will be voting to declare independence from Great Britain, says that he is doing so in spite of the fact that most people in Georgia do not want independence. "In trying to resolve my dilemma I remembered something I'd once read, 'that a representative owes the People not only his industry, but his judgment, and he betrays them if he sacrifices it to their opinion.' It was written by Edmund Burke. How I wish today's representatives sometimes remembered that. I hope I'm wrong and that New York votes to permit gay marriage and advances equality.