Many New Yorkers are taking to the streets to vent their frustrations, after the State Senate voted down a bill that would have given same-gender couples the right to marry in New York State.
Marriage Equality New York is hosting a rally in Union Square tonight, one day after the long awaited bill was rejected by a vote of 24-38.
The bill passed the State Assembly for the second time Tuesday night and had the support of Governor David Paterson, but after two-and-a-half hours of debate it fell eight votes short of passing in the Senate.
All 30 Republicans voted against the measure, along with eight Democrats.
“I’m very angry, I’m very disappointed, I’m very sad,” said Democratic Manhattan Senator Thomas Duane, above, the only openly Mishkav Z’chor’nick in the State Senate. “And I’m frankly feeling betrayed, and that’s a terrible feeling to have.”
“If this were truly a vote of conscious, then marriage equality would’ve passed today,” said Paterson. “I think a number of legislators were intimidated by a number of forces around this issue.”
“All the major religions in the world also oppose it. The Jewish religion opposes it, the Muslim religion opposes it, the Catholic religion opposes it,” said Democratic Bronx Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., who voted against the measure.
The vote comes in the wake of a new poll that finds a slim majority of New Yorkers in support of legalizing gay marriage.
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15 Responses
I certainly hope that they are not allowed to ” vent their frustrations” against people or property. Kol Hakavod to the Agudah and the frum community in general for this one.
Governor Paterson is correct. A number of legislators were intimidated by the forces. They should be. These are the forces they are supposed to represent.
I see our “representatives” have learned nothing this summer. They have to represent us. New York is not anti-gay. We just don’t want it to be called marriage.
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Mr. YWEditor, please, please, please list the names of the state senators who voted for this travesty so we are able to vote them out when they are up for re-election. I tried to find out by going the the New York State Senate website but I wasn’t able to find out this information.
The toeiva groups historically have been very, very anti-semitic. I am praying very hard they don’t take out their frustration on the Jews.
Democracy should work for the normal people, too. And, in this case, it has. When Toeiva was put on the ballot, as it should be, it has been voted down, surprisingly, even in California. THIS arrangement, to pass it, sneakily, by NOT allowing us to vote on it, was also defeated, thank heaven. What the gays think is unfair to them, is fair to us. Due process says this society does not want gay marriage. That is Democracy too, not only if it went the other way around, heaven forfend.
Jews should be ashamed at having fought against this bill. As a minority group, we should never rally against the rights of another minority group, even if we disagree with how they might be exercised. No one is asking the for a halakhic endorsement of gay marriage. We should have just stayed out of it.
Gays have the right to get married, if they find a priest willing to marry them. What they want is to force me to recognize that marriage. I too have rights, and don’t want to be forced to recognize that. Why isn’t my rights just as important. Were not talking about outlawing their activities. They can continue to do as they please.
If there was an attempt to outlaw their activities then as a frum jew we should be concerned about supressing minorities, but that’s not the issue here.
The issue is not about their rights, but about my rights to not recognize them. As a business owner I don’t want to be forced to provide medical insurance for his partner.
You don’t have the right to not recognize marriages or partnerships you might find unacceptable. The state compels you to recognize interracial marriage, which some ignorant Americans find offensive, and marriage between Jews and non-Jews which halakha does not recognize and the frum world finds contemptable. Business owners don’t have to cover employee partners at all. If you want to save money, stop covering health benefits for traditional families.
The Talmud praises the goyim for the tiny virtue that they would not give a kesuba to their partners in sin.
Way to go goyim of the legislature!
In this country, and in fact in no country in the history of the world, has the Talmud been the guide for legislation.
to manonthestreet you obviously have no idea what your talking about. According to the ramban we as Jews are obligated to make sure that goyim are prevented from transgrssing the 7 mitzvos of noach which by legalizing gay marriage will allow more goyim to transgress purposely. R Moshe and R Yaakov were against all Legislation giving gays benefits as this will lead to more people acting on their desires. So as Jews wew do have a responsibility to prevent this legislation.
With all due respect to manofthestreet there is somewhat of a question as to whether gays are a”minority group” does every few people who have a particular lifestyle qualify as a minority group?
There are those who feel that only a unique racial group should i.e blacks,jews,latinos should qualify as a minority.
as to redefinig marriage,
The definition of marriage has always been between man and womanin order to confer “marriage” upon two gays one must redefine that term, as such if I am apposed to that I am not being racist I am simply stating that by making the choices that you make you are not married Just as if I sit on a chait I am sitting on achair and not a bench.
manonthestreet, my Rav said I should protest. Why do you think you know Halacha and Hashkofa better than he?
manonthestreet, would you also “stay out of it” if the state would double your income tax, property tax, etc. or would you jump in and protest. I know you would. It’s just a matter of priorities. If something hurts you, you do whatever you can to get rid of it. If it doesn’t, then you just “stay out of it”. Obviously this issue doesn’t hurt you enough to make you want to jump in. That’s not a problem because everyone is allowed to have his own priorities in life.
to manonthe street,
In this case I think your’e wrong. We’re not trying to deny them any rights-they can have and should have all the rights that anyone in this country is entitled to. What we’re against is redefining what marriage is, which we have a right to uphold the definition of marriage-that they take this as an affront against their rights is not our problem. Lets say me, if a single person, wants to define myself as married and I put that up for a vote and its voted down-I can’t say rationally that they are voting against me-They’re voting not to redefine marriage.