Gay, Gay Marriage

New York State Senate Votes Down Gay Marriage

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In a move that is entirely unsurprising, the New York State Senate voted against legalizing gay marriage. Remember this is an institution that couldn’t figure out how to show up at work for a month. I don’t think anybody expected them to actually do the right thing.
The Republicans stood together against gays, and even though the Democrats control a slim majority in the State Senate, they stick together as if they’ve been sprayed with PAM.
Soon-to-be-former Governor Paterson had this to say, according to the New York Times:

Mr. Paterson made an unusual trip to the Senate floor minutes after the last vote was cast, saying, “These victories come and so do the losses, but you keep on trying.”

You know what was particularly annoying about this latest progressive setback? How excited Roman Catholic clergy are about successfully denying rights to people that don’t want to get married in church.
Details after the jump.


Religious organizations have been powerful forces against gay marriage everywhere. In New York, the strong Catholic community got involved:

The state’s Roman Catholic bishops, who had actively lobbied against the bill, said they were pleased by the vote.
“While the Catholic Church rejects unjust discrimination against homosexual men and women, there is no question that marriage by its nature is the union of one man and one woman,” Richard E. Barnes, the executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, said in a statement. “Advocates for same-sex marriage have attempted to portray their cause as inevitable. However, it has become clear that Americans continue to understand marriage the way it has always been understood, and New York is not different in that regard. This is a victory for the basic building block of our society.”

I’m Catholic. I go to church (sometimes) and everything. It deeply saddens me that my church takes a stand against “unjust” discrimination, but is elated when what it deems as just discrimination prevails.
Maybe a slim majority of Americans still do believe that fundamental discrimination should be codified in our marriage laws. Fine, that is a political problem and a legal problem. There will one day be a political and legal solution.
But when the church strays into matters of the state, that is an entirely different problem. The Catholic church is essentially forcing me, and a lot of Catholics like me, to choose between their faith and their politics. You know what, Richard E. Barnes, I don’t think you want to go there. Your flock is disappearing fast enough as it is.
New York State Senate Votes Down Gay Marriage Bill [New York Times]

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