New York Passes Same-Sex Marriage Bill

NY Times: Lawmakers voted late Friday to legalize same-sex marriage, making New York the largest state where gay and lesbian couples will be able to wed and giving the national gay-rights movement new momentum from the state where it was born.

The marriage bill, whose fate was uncertain until moments before the vote, was approved 33 to 29 in a packed but hushed Senate chamber. Four members of the Republican majority joined all but one Democrat in the Senate in supporting the measure after an intense and emotional campaign aimed at the handful of lawmakers wrestling with a decision that divided their friends, their constituents and sometimes their own homes.

With his position still undeclared, Senator Mark J. Grisanti, a Republican from Buffalo who had sought office promising to oppose same-sex marriage, told his colleagues he had agonized for months before concluding he had been wrong.

“I apologize for those who feel offended,” Mr. Grisanti said, adding, “I cannot deny a person, a human being, a taxpayer, a worker, the people of my district and across this state, the State of New York, and those people who make this the great state that it is the same rights that I have with my wife.”

Finally, a Republican who gets it. This is not about God, or a religious "sanctity." It never has been. It's about equal rights for all.

The passage of the bill followed the passage of an amendment exempting religious institutions participating in same-sax marriage from being sued for discrimination, which in my opinion is completely fine. No religion should be forced to adhere to something it is against, just as no religion should force it's doctrine on others. The separation of church and state is a protection that runs both ways.

Although I now live in the land of Christie, I'm proud to be a native New Yorker today.