Same-Sex Marriage

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 »

Legalizing gay marriage would add $142 million in economic benefits to New York City’s economy over three years, according to a report from
the City Comptroller, Bill Thompson.
According to a statement from Thompson’s office, the money “would be derived from the spending of residents and visitors on their
weddings, along with the spending of their out-of-town guests.”

That burst of wedding-related business would far outweigh the costs incurred by businesses who would have to extend benefits to the new
spouses of employees, according to Thompson.

The report is one of the first in New York to lay out an economic justification for one of the hot button issues of the day.

Could this be the political cover that some of the fence-sitting Democrats in Albany have been waiting for?

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 »