Friday, June 24, 2011

Endless New York Gay Marriage Debate Getting Uglier

By Jim Newell

Endless New York Gay Marriage Debate Getting Uglier

Some of us suckers have woken up each morning this week hoping to see the headline, "New York Senate Finally Does Something About This Friggin Gay Marriage Bill," only to see the same story about how state Republicans are still thinkin' about it. And guess what? Today is no different, except that senators are getting pissy.

To recap: Same-sex marriage proponents still need one more Republican vote in the Senate, as well as a promise from the Republican Senate majority to bring the bill to a vote in the first place. Senate Republicans said they would finally talk about it yesterday, but then they all just went home. This Republican hesitancy is testing the patience of Democrats, who have been playing nice for most of the week so as not to fuck up the whole thing. But now that the extended legislative session is expected to wrap up within, say, a day, Democrats suspect that Republicans are indeed trying to run out the clock without taking a vote.

Endless New York Gay Marriage Debate Getting Uglier The Senate will vote on a variety of other end-of-session measures this afternoon, like, who knows, maybe making corn the state vegetable for a second time this week? That would be superfluous — and as you can see in the photo, controversial enough in its own right — but certainly more fun for Republicans than allowing same-sex marriage to pass in a huge state.