Se3nate Power struggle impedes New York gay marriage vote

New York’s annual Gay Pride parade was a colorful celebration of 40 years of progress toward civil rights for gays, but once the dust settled, gay couples who wish to marry in New York state remain thwarted.

A bill to legalize gay marriage in the state that saw the dawn of the gay rights movement is mired in political stalemate in the state capital Albany, where Democrats and Republicans are battling over control of the state Senate.

“I had hoped today’s march would have been a bit of a wedding march. It’s not,” Christine Quinn, the gay speaker of the New York City Council, said at Sunday’s Gay Pride parade. Held annually, this year’s event marked the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York’s Greenwich Village, which triggered the modern U.S. gay rights movement.

“We are disappointed. … But I know there have been other times our community has been disappointed and you need to keep fighting,” Quinn said at the start of the parade, which organizers said drew more than a million people.

Gay couples can marry in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa and will be allowed marry in Vermont starting in September and in New Hampshire from January. Other states offer same-sex unions that grant many of the same rights as marriage.

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Poll: More New Yorkers support gay marriage

(Albany) A poll finds growing support for same-sex marriage in New York as a bill languishing in the state Senate is scheduled for a special session.

The Quinnipiac University poll finds 51 percent of New Yorkers support the legalization of same-sex marriage. Forty-one percent oppose it.

This is the first time the …

Paterson Vows Vote on Gay Marriage Before Break

ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson said in an interview Sunday night that he would make sure that the State Senate votes on same sex-marriage legislation before it breaks for the summer, hours after he and his administration had refused to commit to forcing a vote on the issue.

The development came as the governor announced plans to call the Senate to a special session on Tuesday, after trying unsuccessfully for two weeks to broker a compromise in a leadership battle that has deadlocked the chamber. But Mr. Paterson dismayed gay rights groups in his comments at a news conference early Sunday afternoon, when he said same-sex marriage would not be on the special session’s agenda.

“It has always been my intention to see same-sex marriage come to the floor,” he said, adding, “I don’t want there to be any confusion.”

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New York Times

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Deleware Gay rights bill heads to full state Senate

The state Senate next week will debate a bill adding sexual orientation to Delaware’s anti-discrimination laws.

Newark-area Democrat David Sokola says he’s grateful Senate leaders let him offer his own version of the bill.Audio Here

During the past 10 years, similar bills have reached the Senate only to die in committee or as the result of a so-called “desk-drawer veto”, but Senate Insurance Committee members Wednesday voted 5-0 to send Sokola’s measure, which has the support of Governor Markell and key House leaders, to the full Senate.

Sokola says he expects spirited opposition from the bill’s opponents, but is confident the measure will pass. See Gay rights bill heads to full state Senate

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NY Gay Marriage Bill Faces New Challenges

With what some are describing as a “circus” in Albany, many gay marriage supporters fear that proposed legislation recognizing same sex marriage in New York will not come up for a vote in a state Senate in flux.

And now, one group is also trying harder to keep that from happening. The National Organization for Marriage announced Tuesday that they have set up a Political Action Committee for New York to fight the measure.

With the announcement, Executive Director Brian Brown also said that the first $500,000 raised will be used to back a primary challenger to GOP Senators who vote for gay marriage.

“The first half million dollars will be used in GOP primaries,” Brown said. “But we are also looking to aid Democratic candidates who want to buck the establishment on the marriage issue, and to help in general election contests.”

Brown said politicians were ignoring “the wishes of their own constituents.” See NY Gay Marriage Bill Faces New Challenges

CBS News

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In RI, some wary as tide of gay marriage rises

PROVIDENCE – From a cramped office in the middle of the smallest state in the nation, Christopher Plante is determined to prove that Rhode Island has not been cornered by the advance of same-sex marriage across the rest of New England.

“When I look at a real map of the United States, we’re actually not alone here,” said Plante, executive director of the Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex unions. “This is not the United States of New England.”

But supporters and even some opponents expect that Rhode Island will legalize same-sex marriage, although they say that legalization is two or three years away.

Massachusetts and Connecticut legalized same-sex marriage as a result of judicial decisions in 2003 and 2008, while Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire followed this spring by legislative action.

The slower pace in Rhode Island, where the state Senate voted last week to allow same-sex partners to make funeral arrangements, has frustrated some local activists, many of whom rallied outside the State House in Providence last weekend to call for immediate equality.

But others say that legalization by 2012, a goal advocates set last year for securing same-sex marriage in all New England states, would put Rhode Island at the front of the pack nationally. In the rest of the country, only Iowa allows same-sex couples to marry.

“They still have a chance to be part of the vanguard,” said attorney Karen L. Loewy, the Rhode Island point person for GLAD, which won the lawsuits in Massachusetts and Connecticut that legalized same-sex marriage in those states. “Rhode Island is well on its way.”

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Boston Globe

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Gay marriage closer in NH

(Concord, N.H.) The New Hampshire State Senate voted today 14-10 to pass the equal marriage compromise bill – but locals say that the House is a harder sell.

The compromise bill includes a provision that allows any religious institution to decide who they will marry.

“The changes augment, buttress and bolster the …

Nev. overrides guv’s partnership bill veto

The Assembly overrode Gov. Jim Gibbons’ veto on a 28-14 vote Sunday and changed state law so that domestic partners, whether gay or straight, have many of the rights and benefits that Nevada offers to married couples.

The Assembly’s vote — the bare two-thirds majority needed — followed the state Senate’s similar decision, with no votes to spare, a day earlier to make the historic change in state law over the conservative Republican governor’s objections.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, termed SB283 “the most important civil rights legislation we have had in all my years here,” adding the law change ensures “justice for all, not justice for some.”

Leslie said proponents of the new law were asking “that their government give them the ability to choose who they will live with and whom they will love.”

SB283 provides that domestic partners have the same rights as married couples in matters such as community property and responsibility for debts. It also prohibits discrimination against domestic partners.

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Marriage Equality and Religious Freedom Win in Key Statehouse Vote In New Hampshire

Committee of Conference votes to advance HB73

CONCORD Today the house and senate committee of conference in the New Hampshire legislature voted in favor of a compromise bill that will advance the freedom to marry while ensuring religious liberties.

HB73 is a bill that will uphold the Constitutional right to freedom of religion, while complimenting previously passed bills that grant marriage equality to same-sex couples. Today’s committee of conference decision treats gay and lesbian people as well as people of faith with dignity and respect. The conference committee report on HB73 is expected to be voted on by the full legislature on June 3rd.

“We remain confident that marriage equality will become law this year, and HB 73 is an important final step in that effort,” said Mo Baxley the Executive Director of New Hampshire Freedom to Marry. “Individual equality and religious freedom are New Hampshire values. We expect the House and Senate to now vote for HB 73 as reported out by the committee of conference. This is a very positive step and we remain optimistic that we will see legal protections for thousands of gay and lesbian couples signed into law by the Governor.”

The freedom to marry for gay couples, partnered with religious protections in HB73 is supported by Governor Lynch, the State Senate, the committee of conference, and the majority of New Hampshire residents.

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The New Hampshire Freedom to Marry Coalition was founded in January 2001 and is New Hampshire’s Statewide LGBT education and advocacy organization. http://nhftm.org/

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Nevada governor follows through on threat to veto DP bill

CARSON CITY — As promised, Gov. Jim Gibbons on Monday vetoed the bill that would allow same- and opposite-sex couples to become legal domestic partners with many of the rights and privileges of married couples.

In his veto message, Gibbons said he rejected state Senate Bill 283 because it is contrary to the wishes of Nevada voters who in 2002 approved the Protection of Marriage constitutional amendment. That amendment stipulates a marriage may be between only a man and a woman.

But the governor said his veto should not be taken to mean he believes that “domestic partners are in any way undeserving of rights and protections.”

He said that on Saturday he signed a bill to prevent discrimination in public accommodations based on one’s sexual orientation.

“I am disappointed, but it wasn’t unexpected,” said state Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, about the veto.

Parks, the bill’s sponsor, who is openly gay, said times have changed since the Protection of Marriage amendment, and some polls show strong public support for domestic partner legislation.

However, a Las Vegas Review-Journal poll conducted May 12-14 found that 50 percent of poll respondents opposed the proposal, with 38 percent favoring it and 12 percent undecided.

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