We have been hearing how gay marriage will destroy American society and now we have a picture of the harbingers of our demise.
Phyllis Siegel, 76, and Connie Kopelov, 84, were the first same-sex couple to get married in Manhattan over the weekend when marriage equality became legal in NY. Yes, these two little old ladies are what all the fuss from the radical religious has been over. Lock your doors folks because the one in the wheelchair is probably making a beeline to grab your kids while they sleep.
Senator Saland spoke with the Poughkeepsie Journal yesterday and described his “emotional and intellectual journey” towards supporting marriage equality. In the interview, Saland mentions that his wife and children have long been supporters of marriage equality. He also discusses the large number of communications that he received from people regarding the vote.
History was made in New York this past Friday when our great state passed the Marriage Equality Act giving civil marriage rights to all couples. New York became the 6th state to allow both mixed-sex and same-sex couples the right to marry. Same-sex marriage is currently allowed in Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. Maryland, New York and Rhode Island recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.
While we were not the first state, New York is the largest state to legalize same-sex marriage and it also the first state in which a Republican-led State Senate passed such a measure. Our own State Senator, Sen. Steve Saland (R-Poughkeepsie), provided a key vote on the measure and joined three of his fellow Republican senators in voting for marriage equality. Senator Saland spoke on the senate floor Friday night and shared his thoughts on how and why he came to the decision to vote for marriage equality. You can read his speech now on the PoughkeepsieJournal.com by clicking here.
Barbara Bush, daughter of George W. Bush, has recorded a video for New Yorkers for Marriage Equality. In the video she vocalizes her support for marriage equality in NY. I think it’s great to see more young Republicans speaking out in support of marriage equality. I wasn’t aware that Ms. Bush lived in NY, were you?
Yesterday the NY State Senate voted against a measure that would have granted marriage equality to all New Yorkers.
Stephen M. Saland
Every Republican senator voted against the measure including Stephen Saland (518-455-2411, saland@senate.state.ny.us), representative of NY district 41. The district I live in. Mr. Saland decided yesterday that I shouldn’t have the same basic rights as the mixed-sex couple that lives across the road from me.
In addition to the predictable Republicans, eight Democrats also voted against the measure. Here they are listed with their district or region in parenthesis:
Darrel Aubertine (Upstate) – aubertin@senate.state.ny.us
William Stachowski (Upstate) – stachows@senate.state.ny.us
Joseph Addabbo (Queens) – addabbo@senate.state.ny.us
George Onorato (Queens) – onorato@senate.state.ny.us
Ruben Diaz (Bronx) – diaz@senate.state.ny.us
Carl Kruger (Kings) – kruger@senate.state.ny.us
Shirley Huntley (Queens) – shuntley@senate.state.ny.us
Hiram Monserrate (Queens) – monserra@senate.state.ny.us
Of this list, you might be familiar with Hiram Monserrate. In March of 2009, Monserrate was indicted by a grand jury on three felony and three misdemeanor charges for the brutal attack of his girlfriend. Apparently, Monserrate savagely attacked his girlfriend and slashed her face. He claimed he was innocent and said he tripped and accidentally cut his girlfriend with a broken drinking glass, requiring more than 20 stitches over her left eye. Monserrate was found guilty of the lesser charge of third-degree assault for dragging a bleeding women down the hallway. That charge is only a misdemeanor, which is how Monserrate has continued to keep his job in the senate and yesterday had the power and ability to tell me that I can’t marry the person I love and have spent more than nine face-slashing-free years with.
Regardless of where you stand on the moral issue of marriage equality, how can you ignore common sense? NY is on the verge of bankruptcy with job and service cuts looming. How can any semi inteligent person say no to the added financial boon gay marriage can bring to the state? As most of my straight friends can attest to, getting married is expensive. Even if you get creative and do it on the cheap, you are still going to be spending money for basic items associated with the marriage. Even if all you do is have a civil ceremony performed by a justice of the peace, the state would have received the marriage license application fees.
So what to do next? Personally, I’m fortunate enough to live 5 minutes from the NY/MA border so I’ll take my disposable, childless, two-person income spending power over the border. I realize that this punishes local businesses but those local business owners probably voted for Stephen Saland so why should I care about their profit. If you are a local business owner in district 41, then email me at jeff@columbiacountycurrent.com, and I’ll add you to my “Ok to shop list”.
If you are wondering why we don’t make that short drive to MA to get married the reason is that I believe marriage means something. It shouldn’t be a matter of convenience vs. inconvenience and we shouldn’t have to cross a state border like someone buying fireworks or booze on Sunday to get married.
Columbia County Current 