She did, however, turn down the chance to co-sponsor all four of those bills. All four of the bills had over a hundred Democratic co-sponsors, so they weren’t small or obscure bills; and according to HRC’s Scorecard, Gillibrand has the worst record of supporting GLBT issues of any New York Democrat. So it’s fair to say that Gillibrand has been the least supportive Representative of any Dem from New York. We could have done a lot better, imo.

Nonetheless, she hasn’t actually voted against these things, so it’s not as bad as it at first appeared. I’ve updated my post to clarify this.

The reporting about her record is flawed. The claim is that she voted agianst or opposed specific items of pro-gay legislation but that doesn’t appear to be true.

This legislation never even made it to a vote.

She lost points on HRC’s survey because they asked legislators to co-sponsors legislation on a number of issues. She did not co-sponsor these four items.

I do not know why she didn’t sign up as a co-sponsor but it is completely unfair to equate this with “opposition to” or “voting against” legislation.

So on the one hand, yes, she should back up her new positions with actions, and I will be fair about judging whether she does so once she has a chance. But on the other hand, there is no reason to be skeptical; she is obviously very smart and very cosmopolitan, and pretty much every person who fits that description is with us in this fight. In demographic terms, it was her former (bigoted) position that was the outlier.

Which is good — but until she’s proven herself, I don’t think you should give her credit for being anything but a two-faced politician who knows that she can’t win statewide by being anti-gay, like she could in her little right-wing district.

The real credit goes to the New York State GLBT community, for being powerful enough so that statewide politicians feel the need for their support.

Sounds just like me. Only no one votes for libertarians…