Not everyone in the crowd at the Waldorf Astoria last night, where Michelle Obama addressed gay activists at a fund-raiser for the Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council of the Democratic National Committee, was bowled over by her talk of “robust civil unions,” even as she received a generally warm response for the rest of her speech.

Obama, who followed New York first lady Michelle Paterson and took the stage to the theme song “Michelle, My Belle,” mostly spoke about how her husband would continue to hold onto his principles through the campaign. She made no explicit mention of his calculated decision to absorb a big editorial hit by opting out of the public financing system, except to say how happy she was about the large number of small donors the campaign had attracted.  read more »

Here are the highlights from yesterday’s press conference where a number of gay activists from Brooklyn criticized Republican State Senator Marty Golden for joining a lawsuit to block state agencies from recognizing same-sex marriages performed outside New York.

At the event, activist held signs calling Golden a “bigot,” and accused him of “homophobia,” primarily for signing onto this lawsuit.

They also announced a plan to put pressure on six legislators from Brooklyn -- Dov Hikind, Nick Perry, Steve Cymbrowitz, William Colton, Peter Abbate, and Annette Robinson -- who voted against same-sex marriage last year. (Two legislators, Alec Brook-Kransy and Carim Camara, abstained.)

As the clip above seems to show, those six legislators won’t get hit with the kind of rhetoric that Golden got hit with (although activist Allen Roskoff tries.)

Councilman Simcha Felder just told a few reporters at City Hall that he has the support of both Michael Bloomberg and Assemblyman Dov Hikind in his new bid to unseat State Senator Kevin Parker.  read more »

David Paterson says his recently publicized May 14 memo to state agencies—which ordered them to legally recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states—is not in any way a change to state law.

“The Legislature has not provided for marriage equality here in New York. I’m an advocate for it, but that’s not the reason that I came to this conclusion,” Paterson said this afternoon at a press conference in his Midtown office.  read more »

Here’s the video in which David Paterson announced same-sex marriages performed in other states will be recognized in New York. It was presented at the May 17 Empire State Pride Agenda fund-raiser in Rochester (and just posted on YouTube yesterday).

At about the 2:20 mark, Paterson says, “I am directing agency heads that we will recognize marriages conducted outside our state right here in New York State.”

With his characteristic humor, Paterson ends the five-and-a-half minute video by saying, “I am David Paterson and I approve this message. Nobody made me make this message. Nobody cajoled or coerced me into giving these thoughts.”

And here is the text of Paterson’s May 14 memo to agency heads with the same instructions:

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Sheldon Silver is giving money to the Stonewall Democratic Club for the first time. In the past, the 32-year-incumbent and Orthodox Jew has not conspicuously supported the causes embraced by many gay activists in his district--or at least he didn't before bringing gay marriage legislation to a vote in the Assembly last June.

Silver paid $500 for a ticket to the May 15 annual fund-raiser for Stonewall, which is based in his district and considered one of the major Democratic clubs for the gay community. He is also expected to attend.

According to a search of campaign finance records, Silver has never given a contribution to the group before. Nor has he given to Lambda Independent Democrats.

The May 15 fund-raiser is the first major event the group has hosted since the Assembly passed the same-sex marriage bill last year. It's also in the run-up to the September primaries, which Silver is taking more seriously than usual as he faces two spirited challengers.  read more »

One of the more exciting conversational themes in Albany today is Errol Louis' column in the Daily News about gay marriage. In it, he writes that the effort to legalize gay marriage, which passed the state Assembly this week, has provided a template for efforts around the country to legalize polygamy and incest.

Gay marriage advocates have reacted furiously, with a number of them emailing and calling me to express their outrage.

Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, said, “I found it absolutely disgusting.” Capelle pointed out that the sexual deviants Louis cites in his column are actually all straight people.

“So don't drag us down with the bottom of the heterosexual group,” he said.

Louis, when told of Van Capelle’s comments, emailed me to say, “One possible response is dismissive ‘disgust.’ A more serious strategy would be to craft an argument for why stable, consensual, adult same-sex relationships should be recognized by the state but stable, consensual, adult sibling sexual relationships should not.”

The full Van Capelle-Louis exchange is after the jump.  read more »

Siena Research Institute has a new poll out today about voter attitudes towards some of the biggest legislative initiatives under consideration in Albany.

62 to 32 percent, voters oppose pay raises for lawmakers;

52 to 42 percent, voters support reinstating the death penalty for cop killers;

51 to 37 percent, voters support public campaign financing;

47 to 43 percent, voters oppose gay marriage;

Other numbers from the poll:
Spitzer’s favorability rating is 67 to 21 percent;

Andrew Cuomo’s is 51 to 32 percent;

and Tom DiNapoli’s favorability rating is 7 to 18.

Eliot Spitzer’s plan to introduce a bill legalizing same-sex marriage later today may not become law. But it may succeed, for the first time, in getting many state legislators to stake out clear, yes-or-no positions on the issue.

“You had a governor, under Pataki, it wasn’t even discussed,” said Assemblywoman Joan Millman of Brooklyn. “Now you have a governor that is openly supporting it. But it’s still going to be a long haul.”

The opposition to same-sex marriage -- or at least the reluctance to address it -- isn't just in the Republican-led state Senate.

I asked Millman, who has been in the Assembly for 10 years, if she knew where Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver stood on the issue.

“No, I don’t," she said. "I know he’s been quoted as saying he wants to see where his conference is on this. And I think the conference is going to be all over the lot because some people are very conservative or represent very conservative districts.”

Millman, who supports same-sex marriage, isn't optimistic. “It’s going to be a real sticking point. I don’t know if it’s going to be something that gets through this session,” she said.  read more »