Though Dean Skelos and the State Senate Republicans still haven't decided if there will be a vote on marriage equality before the legislative session in Albany ends, the issue is still dominating the capitol despite other hot topics to choose from. Advocates on both sides are currently hunkering down, preparing for all contingencies. Celebrities are descending on Albany, an amendment to deal with GOP concerns of religious exemptions has apparently been drafted, opponents are reaching for new angles (couldn't the gays just go straight?) and rumors of the issue being sent to popular referendum are running amok. On top of all that, New Yorkers for Marriage Equality is threatening to "go crazy" if there is no vote.
Earlier this afternoon Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver came out of a meeting with Governor Cuomo and Skelos to discuss the end-of-session "Big Ugly" bill (to wrap up everything from rent control to SUNY/CUNY funding) and told reporters that he had seen a draft amendment dealing with the bill's religious exemptions and found it "acceptable." But he also said that the Assembly would not vote on it until after the Senate. And getting to a vote is proving tricky with no Republicans wanting to be known as the one to tip the 31-31 vote in favor of equality, especially as Conservative party boss Michael Long and others are actively pushing the GOP to "stand strong for traditional marriage and not put a bill on the floor. Any bill that will harm our state should not be allowed a vote.”
Long went so far as to threaten to "strip the party’s endorsement from any Republican senator who votes for marriage, a move that could jeopardize the party’s one-vote majority and its only toehold to state power." Long's threats have some wondering if the vote will now get turned into a public referendum.
Not that Long is the only one making threats! A source at New Yorkers for Marriage Equality tells Capital Tonight that if the GOP doesn't let the issue come to a vote there will be a massive backlash: “They better wake up and realize what will come down on them if they blow this: If we don’t get marriage done this time, everyone knows it’s the fault of the Senate Republicans. They will have to contend next year with very unhappy major donors, a furious and politically sophisticated advocate community, disappointed Democrats and Independent voters back home, and a governor who never forgets.”
Finally, because we guess a hockey star and an actress famous for an over-sexed TV show weren't enough, Albany today has been graced by two very different celebs pushing for marriage equality. Orange-croc wearing chef Mario Batali and Private Practice and Broadway legend Audra McDonald are up there lobbying right now. And, as you can hear in the background, there is a lot of noise being made from both sides on the issue:
And so we wait. The scuttlebutt on Twitter is that a vote could come tomorrow, but it could just as easily not. And what ever happens, the Naked Cowboy has the gays' back.
