On Friday, April 27, Eliot Spitzer, shown here at Empire State Pride Agenda’s Fall 2006 dinner, became the first governor in U.S. history to introduce a marriage equality bill. On Tuesday, May 1, activist will converge in Albany to lobby for LGBT bills. Photo: Doug Meszler.
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By TRENTON STRAUBE
Friday, April 27, 2007
Gov. Eliot Spitzer on Friday, April 27, introduced a bill supporting same-sex marriage. He is the first governor in U.S. history to do so. However, he also cautioned that the legislation’s immediate future was not promising.
“I do not think there is a realistic shot that it gets passed, but I will submit it because it’s a statement of principle that I believe in and I want to begin that dynamic,” Spitzer said earlier this week.
Nonetheless, gay activists applauded the bill. “Today is a watershed moment in our community’s struggle to win the freedom to marry in New York and have our relationships treated the same as any other relationship under the law,” said Alan Van Capelle, executive director of LGBT advocacy group Empire State Pride Agenda, in an official statement Friday morning.
“We thank Gov. Spitzer for keeping his promise to act on marriage equality and for his commitment to seeing that this bill becomes law,” Van Capelle said.
After introducing the marriage equality bill, Gov. Spitzer said, “This legislation would create equal legal protection and responsibilities for all individuals who seek to marry or have their marriage protected in the state of New York.” He also explained a reason to back the cause: “Strong, stable families are the cornerstones of our society. The responsibilities inherent in the institution of marriage benefit those individuals and society as a whole.”
According to the governor’s office, the legislation will include the following provisions:
* A marriage that is otherwise valid under the law will be valid regardless of the sex of the individuals;
* Government treatment, legal status, and all rights, benefits, privileges, protections or responsibilities relating to marriage will be equal for all individual parties who enter into marriage regardless of the sex of their partner;
* No application for a marriage license will be denied on the ground that the parties are of the same, or a different, sex, and;
* In consideration of private, ethical and religious beliefs, no clergy member or religious institution will be compelled to perform any marriage.
Also on Friday, the New York State Department of Civil Service announced that benefits will be extended to same-sex spouses of state employees who were married in countries and states where it is legal.
Now that Spitzer announced his marriage bill, theories abound about which Assembly member will be chosen to sponsor the groundbreaking bill (Speaker Sheldon Silver is the decider). The announcement also sparks discussion about long-term strategies for attaining marriage equality.
Spitzer’s bill arrived four days before Empire State Pride Agenda’s Equality and Justice Day on Tuesday, May 1, in Albany. A record number of more than 1,000 participants have signed up to lobby state lawmakers on LGBT issues. In addition, Spitzer’s bill arrived one week after the governor announced his legislative priorities—“the politics of the art of the possible,” is how he described the bills he thought could pass this legislative session, which ends June 21. A gay marriage bill did not make the cut.
But Assembly member Richard Gottfried said that by simply submitting the bill, Spitzer will make a huge contribution to marriage equality. “Any governor plays an enormous role in setting public agenda, giving an issue much more credibility and moving an issue forward,” said Gottfried, who has introduced a marriage bill since 2002. His bill is sponsored in the Senate by that chamber’s only openly gay member, Thomas Duane.
Sen. Duane also praised Spitzer’s supportive bill. “How far we have come,” he said. “Just last year the LGBT community was shamelessly denied this basic right by the New York State Court of Appeals—whose decision was applauded by the former governor. Today, we have one of the few governors in the United States willing to put himself in the line of fire for the LGBT community because it is the right thing to do. This will not be forgotten.”
Sen. Duane also put the governor’s bill in the larger context of the battle for marriage equality. “Now the fight for our equal rights moves to the State Legislature,” he noted. “I vow to fight for civil marriage until it passes. I want to make one thing crystal clear: Same-sex civil marriage will become come a reality in New York State. I guarantee it.”
Building Support, Votes
Even with a Spitzer-backed bill, the hurdles of passing the legislation through both houses are daunting. But there is a long-term plan of winning marriage, one that may take a few years, several floor votes and an upset in the Senate.
“Gov. Spitzer knows that only a change in leadership in the state Senate will mean that this bill will become law,” said Van Capelle. “But we are extraordinarily optimistic that we can get a vote this session in the Assembly.”
To pass in the Assembly, a bill needs 76 votes out of the total 150. According to ESPA, 61 assembly members support the bill; 64 are unclear, or undecided.
The bill faces a larger battle in the 62-member Republican-controlled Senate. Thirty-two votes are required to pass a bill, and ESPA tallies show 18 as on record for same-sex marriage. But until Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno changes his current opposition to the bill, it won’t even see a floor vote.
Still, these number represent enormous growth, according to Van Capelle, who said the number of Assembly supporters increased from 35 at the beginning of the year to the current 61.
Gottfried agreed. “Not only the number but also the geographic and demographic diversity of sponsorships has been very striking,” he said. “Assembly members in every part of the state are sponsoring the bill.”
He’s referring to the Duane-Gottfried bill. But once Spitzer introduces his bill, called a program bill, that will become everyone’s focus.
Asked whether he expects a vote on the program bill this session, openly gay Assembly member Daniel O’Donnell said, “It is impossible for me to say until it’s introduced. I don’t know what it says. I don’t know whether the way he says it creates problems or issues or opponents that we haven’t even contemplated.”
Sponsors and Strategies
O’Donnell has not signed onto the Duane-Gottfried Bill. Neither have the other two openly gay Assembly members, Deborah Glick and Matthew Titone.
Glick told Gay City News in January that she was holding off until Spitzer introduced his program bill. Glick was not available for comment at press time. Titone was elected just last month to fill a vacant seat and is reviewing the legislation. O’Donnell told the Blade earlier this year that he didn’t think it was a good strategy to put in alternative bills while waiting for the program bill.
This backstory could take a front seat. A story in the New York Sun on Wednesday ran this headline: “Gay Rites Plan Sparks a Power Struggle.” The gist was that Glick and O’Donnell are vying to wrest control and official sponsorship of the marriage bill from Gottfried (Van Capelle said he assumed Duane would carry the bill in the Senate).
O’Donnell said he was perplexed by such reports. “The decision on who carries bills that the governor wants is a decision of the leadership,” he said. “It’s not for a vote, it’s not up for debate, it’s not a popularity contest, it’s not ‘American Idol.’”
Having said that, O’Donnell added that he is uniquely qualified to sponsor the bill because he and his partner were among the original plaintiffs who brought the legal case to the state’s highest court. The court ruled in July against marriage equality and sent the debate to the legislature.
A different line of thinking says that having a straight ally shows broad support for the bill. As Gottfried said: “The bill has benefited from having Duane as a gay legislator who’s denied the right to marriage and me as a straight legislator who has the right to marry and has exercised that right.”
Regardless of its sponsors, Gottfried said, having the bill in over the years helped build support for the issue. “It’s been very helpful to the lobby effort for the advocates to have a concrete piece of paper to ask people to support and sign onto,” Gottfried said, adding that 43 Assembly members are currently signed onto the bill.
Pundits have speculated whether lawmakers who have signed onto the bill will have sacrificed their good standing with Speaker Silver because that pressures him to vote on the measure. One political consultant previously told The Blade that Silver was personally uncomfortable with the issue of gay marriage and was afraid it would hurt him politically; the debate puts Silver at odds with his constituents, many of which are Conservative Jews who oppose gay-marriage.
And then there’s the big picture. As ESPA’s Alan Van Capelle said: “The most important thing about Assembly sponsorship is that whoever is given the honor works as hard as he or she can to make sure we have enough votes in the assembly this session to bring it to the floor for a vote and have it pass.”
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