Marriage equality is thisclose to coming to a vote in Albany (and only two votes shy of assured success) but don't start planning those Fire Island nuptials just yet. Though Governor Cuomo yesterday announced three democrats had come to the light, and an announcement quickly followed up by an additional Republican switching teams, the measure still needs to make it to a vote before the end of the session on Monday, and once there it still needs to pass. Which is why activists are going overboard trying, in the words of the National Organization for Marriage's Brian Brown, to "create a myth of inevitability." Luckily Miranda is on it.
New Yorkers United for Marriage has gone and sent no less than, uh, the Rangers Sean Avery and Sex And The City's Cynthia Nixon up to Albany to push lawmakers to vote their conscience (also, we would LOVE to be a fly on the wall for whatever those two talk about). Meanwhile the group's New Yorkers for Marriage Equality video campaign continues at a breakneck pace. Yesterday the formerly opposed pol Harold Ford, Jr., came out in favor and today Giants owner Steve Tisch joins former Giants defensive end Michael Strahan in support of equal marriage for all.
Now the Senate Majority leader Dean Skelos just needs to let the issue come to a vote (very likely) and follow through on his previous statements that he'll let Republicans vote their conscious. The latter is especially important as the just-switched Republican James Alesi admitted that when he voted against marriage equality two years ago he voted "politically rather than in a way that in my heart and soul I felt I should have voted.”
Of course, not everyone is as open-hearted as Alesi has suddenly become. Noted homophobe Ruben Diaz, Sr. is the only Democrat not expected to vote for marriage equality.
Finally, marriage equality was a part of the national conversation yesterday when it came up in the early GOP presidential debate:
