The state Assembly approved gay-marriage legislation Tuesday by a vote of 85-61, largely a symbolic action this year to demonstrate increasing support for the measure because it has no chance of passing the Senate.
Assembly members cited personal experiences, religious beliefs, societal norms, polls, constitutional rights, the Bible and other factors to explain their votes on the bill, which would give same-sex couples the same legal status, benefits and protections heterosexual couples have. The legislation would not require members of the clergy to perform same-sex marriages.
The bill's lead sponsor in the Democrat-led Assembly, Daniel O'Donnell, D-Manhattan, said the bill has nothing to do with religion, which a number of lawmakers said was their reason for opposing it. The brother of celebrity Rosie O'Donnell, he is gay and has had a partner for 26 years.
"I do not want a seat in your synagogue, I do not want a pew in your church. I seek a license that many of you have had, some of you have had two or three times," O'Donnell said, prompting laughter at the end of a three-hour debate.
Tuesday was the first time the Assembly had voted on gay marriage. There are dozens of Assembly co-sponsors of the bill, which was proposed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
But it will go no further in 2007. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, Rensselaer County, said Tuesday that the Senate would not take up the matter by the end of the session Thursday or this year.
And of course, some people insisted that of course religion has something to do with it--their religion, natch, no-one else's:
Assemblyman Dov Hikind, D-Brooklyn, said he is open-minded, but his decision to vote against the bill is based on his Jewish faith.
"There are certain things that do not change for me as an individual, unless God sends me a message," he said.
Voila!
Lawmakers laughed a few minutes later when they heard thunder from a passing rainstorm.
And someone finally explained how gay marriage does harm to straights! Well, kinda:
Brian Kolb, of upstate Canandaigua, spoke of his traditional German Irish Catholic upbringing and said, "When we talk about harm or threat, I don't feel it in a physical sense, but I feel it in an emotional sense. I do feel threatened. I do feel harm... It is a direct challenge to the way I was brought up and what I believe about God. I cannot fundamentally support a bill that tears at my soul."
Awww, poor widdle baby. He feels threatened knowing that there are people out there that don't live and believe exactly the way some people told him was right when he was a little child. Clearly we have to outlaw all religions that aren't Catholic so that he never feels harmed or threatened again. After all, it's not as if those people have rights, if their rights offend this thin-skinned jackass.
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