The same-sex marriage equality battle in New York is taking place in Albany, the state capitol, and in New York City, home to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. As of this moment, Senators are conferencing in Albany for the third morning in a row in the marriage equality bill. Rumor has it Cuomo may hold them past their session end date of Monday if other business is not finished, like rent regulations.
The Albany Times-Union just reported that, “as well as the ongoing same sex marriage, rent-regulation/tax cap debate, senators will also likely talk about the unresolved question of how to handle the defunct OTB [Off Track Betting] system in New York City.
“Also undone are the health exchanges which under President Obama’s health care legislation are supposed to be set up this year, with the failure to do so resulting in a potential loss of federal funds.”
NY Mayor Bloomberg has taken a leadership role all of a sudden — demanding of the Republican-majority Senate “to take a vote” – and to understand why, you have to understand a few things about New York politics.
First, a long-time history of corruption still hangs over Albany.
Long-time readers know all too well the fact that last year, now-former State Senator Pedro Espada was sued by then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, now Governor Cuomo, for allegedly diverting $14 million to himself, his campaign, friends, and family, from Espada’s Bronx clinic, after years of allegations and investigations into Espada’s campaign finance activity, including his repeated refusal to file campaign finance records.
Espada’s partner in crime, at least in Senate politics, former State Senator Hiram Monserrate, last year became one of the very few New York State Senators ever to be expelled. Monserrate was convicted for criminal domestic abuse, which involved slashing with a broken glass his girlfriend’s face, dragging her by the hair — on video tape — through his lobby, then driving her around town to different hospitals to find one in which he, as a State Senator, would not be recognized.
And then we have Senator Carl Kruger, the man long-rumored to be gay, who was outed by the federal Department of Justice after being indicted in a million-dollar federal bribery scandal — with his boyfriend. Senator Kruger has always voted against marriage equality, but we’re pleased to report that, now he’s been outed, and since he is still a Senator, despite his indictment, he will vote for the bill. Perhaps he and his boyfriend, if convicted, can get married and share a cell in Otisville.
So, now that you know a little about the past, it should come as now surprise that rent control has emerged as a major football in the New York marriage equality battle. Seems rent control regulations mysteriously expired this week — it’s not like there was a specific date and no one in Albany owns a calendar — so now the focus is on arm wrestling over the rent-regulation/tax cap bill.
Of course, Mayor Bloomberg, being the mayor of eight million citizens, has a lot to say about rent regulations. So Bloomberg has been in Albany lobbying and conferencing with the Republican majority in the Senate.
The other football in the marriage equality “game” is the one publicity-hound Senator Greg Ball has been tossing around: so-called religious exemptions. It’s not enough that religious organizations, like the Catholic Church are exempt from having to marry same-sex couples, and that religious, “benevolent” organizations, such as the Knights of Columbus — one of the most anti-gay organizations around — are exempt under the bill, but Senator Ball is demanding that caterers, hotels, and florists — essentially anyone who might have anything at all to do with a wedding, should be exempt from (God Forbid!) having to do business with “the gays.”
Pretty soon David’s Bridal Shops, The Men’s Warehouse, and CVS’s film developing kiosk will also be included as exempt from having to do business with us, along with AT&T (brides and grooms make phone calls, right?) and Amazon.com.
Of course, the religious organizations state-wide are taking this opportunity to get their ransom lists demands in.
“Should the bill pass without adequate protection, it will have potentially far-reaching consequences for our ministries, both in terms of contracts to provide services and potentially to challenges to not-for-profit status,” said Dennis Poust, a spokesman for the state Catholic Conference, the policy and lobbying arm of Roman Catholic bishops in New York,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Religious leaders and some legal scholars are urging the state to include a specific provision for individuals or businesses, like florists or caterers, that refuse to offer services to gay couples. Other states with gay marriage don’t grant such protections, which gay-rights advocates say would open the door to outright discrimination.
“No one is going to lose out because of this. There’s another florist down the block,” said Mordechai Biser, the general counsel of Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox Jewish advocacy group. “We’re not talking about a situation in the South when blacks couldn’t eat at a lunch counter.”
But this, evidently, means we’re making progress. Not long ago, anti-gay bigots were loath to compare the African-America battle for civil rights with the LGBT battle for civil rights.
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I think this is crazy…. there are many many many gay and Lesbian couples who desperately need to get married, for reasons of immigration, hospital visitation, making medical decisions on behalf of a spouse, estate planning, etc., etc., etc. and we are fighting back because we want to make sure we can sue a florist if he/she doesn't want to sell flowers for our wedding? given the number of gay florists out there, i am sure i can find one that will sell flowers to my wedding. moreover, if the catholic church does not want to help me adopt a child, i am sure i can find an organization that will. If this bill goes down to defeat, it will be a devastating setback to our rights movement. People like me, who are in a real bind on immigration and lie awake every night wondering when their partner's 5th work visa is going to go up in smoke, and whether will need to ruin our careers and abandon our family (with a very ill father who needs caretaking and an orphaned cousin who needs my moral and financial support) People like me need this to go through because we need a sign of hope that our lives are finally going to improve and we won't have to live in exile…. and have some stability and finality in our lives — no carve out they are proposing is going to diminish our existing rights, because we can't get married at all — so if the Catholic Church only wants its adoption agencies to cater to married people as a way to avoid dealing with us, and then we get the right to get married but not to have help from the Catholic Church in adopting, we have lost nothing…. and gained so much. We do not need to force every private organization to recognize our marriage — so long as hospitals recognize it (regardless of whether they are religious) and employers (except churches and the like) recognize it, and the government recognizes it, then we have what we really need. As long as we get the word "marriage" we should be willing to compromise on other things … without the word "marriage," of course, it's just taking a step back because New York already recognizes out of state marriages and such a bill would therefore be a step backward.
Catholic Charities is free to discriminate as long as they do not get public tax payer funds to do so. If they want to be bigots….do it with their own money not mine. The same way they tax payer funds should not pay for abortion. Tax payer funds should not support discrimination.
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