Friday, June 24, 2011

Watch it Live: Same Sex Marriage Bill Set for Passage in New York? (Bumped)

NY Senate is now in session and will soon vote on bill legalizing same sex marriage. Watch it here and tell me what you think!

nysenate on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Vote Yes/Vote No


New York state lawmakers have been working to pass a bill legalizing the union between same sex couples. The vote is coming down to the wire and is expected to come to the floor later tonight or tomorrow.

"A National Organization of Marriage poll recently found that 57% of NY state is for traditional marriage. This is in contrast polls conducted by Siena College, Marist, and Quinnipiac that found that a majority of New Yorkers actually support the passage of a marriage equality bill. Those polls also talked to many more people than this poll, which only surveyed 302 “registered voters with voting history randomly selected from the voter registration file in NYS.”

According to the WSJ Metropolis there are many political observers that expect the legislation to pass once lawmakers are able to settle on language that would allow for churches and religious institutions to recuse themselves from performing same-sex unions.

This seems exactly correct. As it stands the Senate is currently deadlocked at 31-31, on shy of the number of votes needed to pass. According to Capital Tonight Sen Greg Ball has now confirmed he is a no vote on the measure. More to the point:

Sen. Greg Ball, who had sought greater protections for religious institutions, released a formal statement this evening confirming that he’s voting no on the same-sex marriage bill.

Ball says there’s just not enough religious exemption language in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s same-sex marriage. The Hudson Valley Republican’s statement isn’t that surprising, since he had said since the bill’s introduction that he would vote no unless broader exemptions were added to the bill.

This leaves only three Republican senators who are undecided on the measure: Mark Grisanti, Steve Saland and Andrew Lanza.

Sen Saland and Lanza have both met with Governor Cuomo in recent days to develop an amendment within the bill that would allow for broader religious protections.

Specifically, a spokeswoman for Sen. Ball said the final legislation protects "religious corporations", but not employees of those "religious corporations" like pastors and ministers, who actually do the work of marrying people.

Personally I don't think the government has any real role in deciding who does and doesn't get "married" and believe that it is incumbent that any potential legislation protect the real first amendment rights of freedom of religion. I also think it more than prudent for legislators to seek particular protections for those religious institutions who will not comply with the joining of a man to a man or a woman to a woman in holy matrimony.

The likely result of legislation legalizing gay marriage without those protections and maybe with them, is the courts will seek to impose their will on a religious groups through lengthy litigation and tax law.Please bookmark!

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