Gay Marriage Gains Critical Vote in New York State Senate; Passage Appears Assured

Although there are two more speakers left to go, the NY Senate just gained a critical vote in the Marriage Equality Act. Read more after the jump & watch everything live!!

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(NYTimes)–Thirty-two state senators have publicly declared they will support legalizing same-sex marriage, all but assuring passage of the measure, which will make New York the largest state where gay and lesbian couples can wed.

The Senate took up the measure just before 10 p.m., and the Senate galleries were packed with gay couples in support of the bill and religious opponents of it.

Senator Stephen Saland, a Poughkeepsie Republican, became the critical 32nd vote, telling his colleagues in an emotional address that he believed the issue came down to a question of equality.

“I know my vote is a vote of conscience,” he told a hushed chamber. “I am at peace with my vote. It was a struggle. It was an extraordinary deliberation.”

The measure was to be the final act of this year’s legislative session, and lawmakers earlier Friday barrelled through a variety of votes on university tuition, rent stabilization, and property taxes.

“After many hours of deliberation and discussion over the past several weeks among the members, it has been decided that same-sex marriage legislation will be brought to the full Senate for an up or down vote,” the majority leader, Senator Dean G. Skelos of Long Island, said in a statement. “As I have said many times, this is a very difficult issue and it will be a vote of conscience for every member of the Senate.”

Mr. Skelos, whose caucus had been criticized over the last week for not scheduling a Senate vote on the same-sex marriage measure, said in an interview, “The days of just bottling up things, and using these as excuses not to have votes — as far as I’m concerned as leader, it’s over with.”

The marriage measure, which was proposed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and approved by the state Assembly, has been publicly endorsed by 31 of the 62 senators — leaving the measure one vote shy of the votes needed for passage in the Senate. The announced supporters include 29 of the 30 Senate Democrats and 2 of the 32 Senate Republicans. Supporters and opponents alike said that anything could happen when the Senate takes its vote.

Friday evening, one of the Republican senators thought to be open to voting in favor of same-sex marriage announced that he would oppose the bill. Senator Andrew J. Lanza, of Staten Island, who had been heavily lobbied by gay rights advocates and Mr. Cuomo, said he believed the word marriage should “describe a union between a man and a woman.”

“Calling a union between a man and a woman marriage, and one between a man and man a civil union, does not invalidate one or the other,” he said in a statement.

Mr. Lanza, who has publicly agonized over the marriage issue, has been concerned that a yes vote on gay marriage would endanger his re-electability in his relatively conservative district.

At least two other Senate Republicans remain undeclared: Stephen M. Saland, from the Hudson Valley, and Mark Grisanti of Buffalo.

The Senate easily defeated a same-sex marriage measure in 2009, when the chamber was controlled by Democrats; improbably, it seemed to face better odds this year, when it is controlled by Republicans, because Mr. Cuomo has succeeded in persuading all but one Democrat to support the measure, and because a few Republicans have changed their votes. Mr. Cuomo, a first-term Democrat, has said that passage of same-sex marriage is one of his top priorities.

The decision by Senate Republican leaders to allow a vote followed a week of intense behind-the-scenes negotiation between Mr. Cuomo and Senate Republicans, much of it focused on whether or not the governor’s proposal went far enough in protecting religious institutions that do not approve of same-sex unions. On Friday, the legislative leadership reached an agreement on a measure that they said would protect those religious institutions; that measure was approved Friday evening in the Assembly.

Opponents of same-sex marriage rallied in force on Monday, gathering outside the Senate chambers to sing and chant, as their leaders delivered petitions with 63,000 signatures of New Yorkers opposing the legalization of same-sex weddings.

“Regardless of the issue, there’s a process that should be followed, and that process is being violated tonight,” the Rev. Jason J. McGuire, the executive director of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, which advocates against same-sex marriage, said Friday. “They should have allowed this language to be out for a time to properly vet it. We are just now looking at this language, and we don’t have time to respond to all the legal concerns.”

And the New York State Catholic Conference, responding to the announcement of a vote, issued a statement declaring, “The Bishops of New York State oppose in the strongest possible terms any attempt to redefine the sacred institution of marriage. … We urge all senators to vote no on Governor Cuomo’s bill. Marriage has always been, is now, and always will be the union of one man and one woman in a lifelong, life-giving union. Government does not have the authority to change this most basic of truths.”

Supporters, in turn, staged a rally at the Capitol on Tuesday, and have been holding signs and talking with lawmakers in the halls throughout the week.

“This is important and historic progress, but we’re not there yet,” Ross D. Levi, executive director of Empire State Pride Agenda, a gay rights group advocating for the measure said Friday afternoon. “We don’t stop working until we’re done.”

Along the Great Western Staircase, outside the Senate chamber, about 100 demonstrators chanted and waved placards throughout the night — those for and against the measure separated by a generation, a phalanx of state troopers and 10 feet of red marble.

“Support traditional marriage,” read signs held by the opponents. “Love is Love; Vote Yes,” declared those in the hands of the supporters.