Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyPosts Tagged As: New York
November 10th, 2009
News sources are starting to report that gay marriage won’t come to a vote in New York today. Gov. David Patterson had called an extraordinary session of the legislature to deal with the state’s budget crisis; a gay-marriage vote during the session was widely expected. A few things have stalled the bill, including the uncertainty of passage and the fact that its lead sponsor in the legislature, Tom Duane, has been out the past few days (his mother passed away).
November 10th, 2009
Governor Paterson has called the New York State Senate into a special session to resolve budget issues and pass marriage equality. Paterson has said that at this point he’d rather have a “no” vote – and find out who the opponents of equality are – than have no vote at all.
And I agree.
It is time for the Democratic leadership to stop protecting those who cannot commit to equality and stop hiding behind “a vote count”. For too long our community has been willing to give an out to “our friends” who are “in a tough district”.
But, as of yet, leadership is still playing the game of no commitment and no accountability.
Lets vote, Senators. Today.
November 3rd, 2009
For the past century and a half, New York congressional seat 23 has been in Republican hands. But when the local Republican leadership selected a candidate for the special election who supported marriage equality, that was just too much for some conservative out-of-state Republicans. Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Dick Armey, and others built a national campaign in support of the Conservative Party candidate – all for the purpose of destroying Dede Scozzafava.
And, millions of dollars later and hours of talk radio ranting, that is all they accomplished.
Unwilling to accept a Republican that agreed with them sometimes, they handed the election over to a Democrat who would have otherwise had little chance. The final vote was:
Bill Owens – Dem. – 60,824 – 49.0%
Doug Hoffman – Con. – 56,450 – 45.5%
Dede Scozzafava – Rep. – 6,855 – 5.5%
(Even though Scozzafava withdrew from the race over the weekend and endorsed Owens, her name was still on the ballot and drew some protest votes)
But the extremists will not see this as a loss. Rather, they are delighted that they drove from the Party a long-time faithful and active Republican because she was “Republican In Name Only”. They embody the politics of exclusion, rejection, and arrogance. And if the Party caters to them, it does so at its own peril.
But although the most pro-gay candidate was driven out, there is a silver lining. Hoffman did not win. And when the extremists whine and moan about Nancy Pelosi, they will know deep in the back of their mind, that they gave her another vote. I can hardly wait for the day on which Owens’ one vote makes the difference on a bill they deeply care about.
November 2nd, 2009
Over the weekend, Dede Scozzafava, the very gay-supportive Republican candidate for the 23rd Congressional district in New York pulled out of the race. Faced by a Democrat with heavy party funding and a prior-Republican-now-Conservative with financing from hard-core right-wing party purists, Scozzafava was not receiving adequate funds run an adequate campaign and maintain her early lead.
In many ways, this highlights the problem that moderate candidates face. If they are not perceived as being “our guy in Congress” for some special interest or if the party doesn’t make their seat a priority, it can be difficult to finance a campaign. Representing the moderate views of your constituency is all fine and good, but moderate positions are not much inclined to get the average voting citizen fired up enough to give.
Unfortunately, the voters are now left with a choice between Bill Owens, an nonsupportive Democrat, and Doug Hoffman, a hard-core anti-gay Conservative. Scozzafava has endorsed Democrat Bill Owens but that may not be enough. Polls are suggesting that Conservative Hoffman may be leading in the now two-man race.
The most frustrating thing about the situation is that the right-wing extremists are now feeling justified and vindicated in their effort to destroy Scozzafava. They are “sending a message to all of the RINOs” (Republicans in name only) that they are not welcome in the Republican Party and that they will be driven out. Today Rush Limbaugh chortled that Scozzafava’s endorsement of the Democrat might lead to the “extinction” of RINOs.
Some Republican Party leadership had been showing signs lately that they are aware that moderates are needed in more liberal parts of the country in order for the Party to be competitive. But that may be more lip service than reality.
It will be interesting to see what they do. So far, there have been some very disturbing statements. (Bloomberg)
House Republican leaders embraced Hoffman after Scozzafava suspended her campaign. Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, and Texas Representative Pete Sessions, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement that they “look forward to welcoming Doug Hoffman into the House Republican Conference.”
Boehner and Cantor said in a separate statement they would support Hoffman to fill the next available vacancy on the House Armed Services Committee.
By promising Hoffman plum appointments, both Boehner and Cantor have sent the message that they will richly reward those who destroy the more moderate elements of the Party and drive out those who do not share their extremist views on social issues. If the leadership continues in that vein, they may well be successful in turning the Republican Party into an ideologically pure, but politically irrelevant, permanently minority party.
October 14th, 2009
Who is NY State Assemblyman Greg Ball?
Assemblyman Greg Ball (R, C, I – Patterson) is serving his second term in the New York State Assembly, where he serves as ranking member of the influential committee on Corporations, Authorities, and Commissions.
…
A former Vice President of Exceed International Development Corporation, Ball holds a Bachelor\’s Degree in Political Science from the United States Air Force Academy, is currently completing his Masters Thesis of Liberal Studies in International Affairs at Georgetown University and received an honorable discharge in 2005 at the rank of Captain after service as an active duty officer in the United States Air Force.
In case you missed it, Ball is a vet and he’s a Republican. And it is from that perspective that Ball has “called upon the New York State Army National Guard to put a moratorium on the current “Don\’t Ask, Don\’t Tell” (DADT) policy affecting the military.”
I don’t know if the State of New York can unilaterally determine policy for the State National Guard – though one would certainly think that the founding fathers would have thought so. But, nevertheless, I like what he has to say:
“As an Academy grad and former Air Force Captain, I was honored to serve with the best and brightest of America. What folks need to realize is that some of the brightest and best in uniform are also homosexual. These folks serve honorably everyday, but are asked, forced really, to live a lie, and that reality in and of itself is a self inflicted security risk created by DADT. To kick brave men and women out of the military, patriotic folks willing to fight and die for our country, because of their sexual orientation, in an era when we need every serviceman and woman we can get, is foolish. The military is strong and resilient and can handle this change,” said Ball.
(hat tip Good As You)
October 13th, 2009
Video was released yesterday showing a gay Queens man being brutally beaten by two men last week. Jack Price, 49, was harassed and assaulted early Friday morning as he was leaving a deli. The attack was was captured on video, as Price was subjected to anti-gay epithets and beaten to the ground. He was left with a broken jaw, fractured ribs and a lacerated spleen. He is in a medically-induced coma on a respirator.
The two attackers have been arrested. They are Daniel Aleman, 26, and Daniel Rodriguez, 21. Aleman, who was arrested over the weekend, has been charged with assault and aggravated assault as a hate crime. Rodriguez, who was arrested today in Norfolk, VA, has charges pending his extradition to New York.
July 13th, 2009
NY1 is reporting
Governor David Paterson will push the State Senate to vote on same-sex marriage during a special session in early September.
But, as we’ve seen, we shouldn’t make any assumptions.
July 10th, 2009
The stalemate in the New York State Senate is over in the same way it began. (NY Times)
The bitter standoff that has paralyzed the New York Senate for nearly five weeks ended on Thursday, when a senator from the Bronx who had defected to the Republicans returned to the Democratic fold, giving the party the majority it needed to re-establish control.
And now that the Democrats and Malcolm Smith have regained control, marriage equality has been taken back off the table. One ironic twist in this convoluted story is that there was an assumption that under Republican structured leadership, the marriage bill would have been brought for a vote. And it is even possible that there are adequate Republican supporters to make up for the vocal opponents in the Democratic caucus.
But the reforms that would have allowed Senators to bring forward legislation without the support and express permission of the Senate President appear to have been abandoned and the current Senate President, Malcolm Smith, has shown a stubborn insistence on keeping the bill from a vote. So it appears to me that marriage equality is dead in New York for the forseeable future.
July 8th, 2009
In an effort to break the petulant partisan bickering that has ceased all movement on any legislation in the state Senate for the past month, Gov. Paterson has appointed a Leutenant Governor. The state has been without a Lt. Gov. since then Governor Spitzer resigned and Paterson left that spot to become the state’s governor.
The move comes even though the state’s top lawyer, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, warned earlier this week that such an appointment would be illegal.
Meanwhile the state’s vote on marriage sits in limbo.
July 3rd, 2009
Maggie Gallagher, in reaction to the Frank Lombard case, admits that she is very mistrustful of men adopting children. “I have a bias in favor of mothers,” she writes. “I have a suspicion (let me be frank — I’m not proud, but it’s true) of men who want to get close to children while depriving them of mothers.” I guess when it comes to raising children, mothers really know best. We can all probably learn some valuable lessons from moms on raising children.
Like this dilemma every parent faces. What do you do when your nine-year-old child is in the middle of a long-running dispute with one of her classmates?
Well if you’re a licensed clinical social worker and a classroom mother at your daughter’s elementary school, you post a sexually suggestive ad in the “Casual Encounters” section of Craigist. And when throngs of sex-seeking men answer the ad, you give them the phone number of your child’s antagonist.
That’s what Margery Tannenbaum thought. She placed the ad with the headline of “Looking for a good time? W4M21” on Craiglist. The ad read, “I need a little affection. … I am blonde and very cute! I’ll be waiting!”
Next thing you know her child’s arch-enemy’s mother had to field at least 50 calls from horny straight men in two days before changing her number. Tannenbaum also ordered at least eight magazine subscriptions, a book and a DVD to be sent to the child’s home.
Tannenbaum was arraigned on Thursday on charges of aggravated harassment and endangering the welfare of a child. Her defense lawyer — he’s probably straight too, but we haven’t confirmed that yet — called her a “good, hardworking professional.” He also says “this is being blown out of proportion.”
This is outrageous, so outrageous I think it calls for some LaBarbera-esqe typography. Heterosexuals will stop at nothing in their thirst for debauchery! If you think this latest example is beyond the pale, then I’ve got news for you: this barely scratches the surface. There\’s more heterosexual menace here and in our report, “The Heterosexual Agenda: Exposing the Myths.”
Update: News coverage of the Long Island mom accused of sending sex-crazed men to her daughter’s nine-year-old classmate is apparently lacking what some say is a key piece of information: the fact the alleged perpetrator is a heterosexual who lives with a “straight” man. Where\’s the media frenzy? Why do all these reports hide that important fact?
Okay, I’ll stop with the red ink. It makes my eyes hurt.
June 23rd, 2009
A new Quinnipiac poll shows that a majority of New Yorkers support a law allowing same-sex couples to marry.
New York State voters support 51 – 41 percent, with 8 percent undecided, a law allowing same-sex couples to marry, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.
While it is news that support finally crossed the 50% mark, support from New Yorkers has been in the 40+ range for a couple years. But we can glean some other interesting facts from this poll:
The poll also asked about civil unions.
New York State voters support same-sex civil unions 68 – 25 percent, with support from all groups, including 55 – 37 percent among Republicans.
As stated, there were no demographics – age, race, religion, education, location – which opposed civil unions. The largest opposition, 39%, came from weekly church goers.
It appears that recent attention given to the issue – including anti-gay advertising by NOM – has only served to increase support for marriage equality in the state.
June 22nd, 2009
The New York Senate may vote on marriage equality this week. And the vote may not originate with either Malcolm Smith, the deposed Democratic Majority Leader, or Pedro Espada, his Republican/Coalition replacement. Rather, the Governor himself may be forcing the Senate to vote on the issue.
The Governor has had it with the squabbling of the two parties and is ordering emergency sessions to force both sides to meet and vote.
Paterson ordered senators to stay in Albany Tuesday, and likely for several more days to take action required by the end of the month.
Pending measures include authorizing local governments to raise municipal taxes needed for budgets due as early as July 1, extending mayoral control of New York City schools and continuing to provide lower-cost energy to companies in exchange for job growth.
The Democratic governor also says he will require additional special sessions to force the Senate to consider other bills, including the legalization of same-sex marriage.
The constitutionality of the Governor’s action may be presumed by the fact that the chief judge of the Court of Appeals (New York’s Supreme Court), Jonathan Lippman, had made himself available to preside over the Senate.
June 21st, 2009
Occasionally I’m amused at the disconnect between an article and its headline.
Today the Albany Times-Union has an article about the New York State Bar Association, the statewide organization of attorneys. The lawyer group has endorsed gay marriage as the “only viable way to establish marriage equality.”
The headline reads:
Bar group backs gay marriage right
Although, based on some attorneys I’ve met, they may not be that far off.
June 10th, 2009
More rumors fly on the NY Senate coup, some involving whether the alliance will hold. And at this point it continues to be likely that the best chance for a vote on the marriage bill will be with the new shared-power Repulican alliance. (Buffalo News)
The new leader added that legalizing gay marriage “is my signature issue at this point.” Espada is actively trying to woo Sen. Thomas Duane, a Manhattan Democrat who is pushing the gay marriage bill, to join with him and the Republicans in running the Senate.
Espada said he hopes to bring the bill to the floor next week. Its passage is far from certain, however, but Espada said he wants to end the days of the Legislature’s only bringing bills to the floor that are certain to pass.
June 10th, 2009
New York is still in a whirl over the Republican coup in the Senate. And with Democrats locking refusing to concede and locking the doors of the chamber, uncertainty reigns. Republicans are planning on calling the Senate to order, even if they have to do so in a park.
Naturally, amidst the turmoil rumors of all sorts abound. And many of them involve the gay marriage bill.
Perhaps the most startling is the idea that Republicans may be wooing Democrats by promising to pass the marriage bill. (NY Times)
One of the senators who is believed to be considering breaking ranks with the Senate Democratic conference, Thomas K. Duane of Manhattan, would not say Tuesday where he planned to cast his political allegiance. “I am not considering anything but trying to get passed all the legislation I\’ve spent my whole life fighting for,” he said. Mr. Duane, who did not attend meetings with his Democratic colleagues on Tuesday, said he had spent all day in discussions with senators from both parties.
Mr. Duane did not attend the meeting of Democrats on Wednesday morning, and he has not been seen in the Capitol since Monday.
City Hall News takes the story further
But the scuttlebutt among several lawmakers and aides, which many of Duane’s colleagues and supporters seem to believe, is that he is hashing out a deal with the Senate Republicans to bring a bill legalizing same-sex marriage to the floor for a vote.
That would not surprise those close to Duane, who say the Manhattan Democrat is committed above all else to passing same-sex marriage legislation before the end of the session—even if it means joining the coalition majority, some of whose members “he despises,” according to one close friend and adviser. Cooperating with Republicans would offer Duane the opportunity to pass landmark civil rights legislation that could have ripple effects across the country.
They provide some history
The move would not surprise Republicans, either. GOP leaders, including then-Majority Leader Dean Skelos, courted Duane intensively as early as December of last year, according to a Republican official familiar with the conversations.
At the time, Smith was struggling to appease a group of dissident Democrats who were threatening to throw their support behind the Republicans. One, Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., tried to extract from Smith a promise not to bring the same-sex marriage bill to the floor for a vote.
As Smith mulled that deal, Republicans reached out to Duane, enticing him with the possibility of bringing gay marriage to the floor themselves and, with his support, passing the bill. Duane ultimately rebuffed those overtures after Smith rejected the terms of Diaz\’s deal.
The plan some Republicans had hatched involved letting a handful of their safer and more moderate members, such as Sen. Betty Little, vote along with most of the Democratic conference in favor of the gay marriage bill. That way, Republicans would co-opt a key plank in the Democrats\’ platform and claim that they had succeeded where the Democrats had failed.
Republicans now appear to have resurrected those plans in a political maneuver they feel would neutralize a key voting bloc and further debilitate a wounded Democratic conference.
There is even speculation that Duane is willing to change party registration.
If any of this is true, it would be perhaps one of the strangest political turns that I’ve seen.
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