ACT On Principles

From The Empire State Pride Agenda Director Alan Van Capelle

Our Work For Equality Continues

Without a doubt, last week’s vote on the marriage equality bill in the New York State Senate was a heartbreaking result after years of nonstop work and advocacy from so many LGBT New Yorkers and straight allies. We should all pause and take a moment to allow ourselves to process the range of emotions we’re feeling about the vote. And yes, I expect one of those emotions you’re feeling is anger, because it’s certainly one I’m feeling right now.

Losing a vote on our civil rights is devastating. Whether marriage equality is your top LGBT issue or whether it is GENDA or another issue, what hurts most is knowing that the majority of State Senators still believe that it’s acceptable to treat millions of New Yorkers as “less-than” or second-class citizens. That’s what this vote ultimately said—and that’s what makes it so personal.

But we also learned some positive things as a result of the vote and I think it’s incredibly important to highlight them:

We were able to do what practically no one else was able to do with a post-coup State Senate—get a debate and vote on a bill. Our hard work and determination brought the bill to the floor without a predetermined final outcome. This is virtually unprecedented in the State Senate and many critics thought it would be impossible in such a tumultuous year. Getting an up-or-down vote was always going to be absolutely essential to our strategy because we needed to know where each of the 62 State Senators stood on marriage equality.

When the vast majority of African-American and Latino State Senators voted in support of marriage equality, we dealt a blow to the shameful idea that communities of color somehow stand in the way of equality for same-sex couples. In fact, some of the most eloquent arguments during the Senate debate came from African-American and Latino legislators. These men and women articulated exactly why they believe that this is an important civil rights movement and that there is no excuse to continue discriminating against LGBT families when it comes to protections that the State of New York provides to its people.

During the two-and-a-half-hour debate, when we heard incredibly moving arguments from Senators in support of marriage equality, we heard only one argument from a Senator who opposes our right to marry. The other 37 Senators who voted “no” were silent during the entire debate, and the only time we heard anything from them was when they were forced to say the word “no” during the voice vote roll call.

The “no” votes were silent because our community had taken away every single argument that they could use against us. Early on in this campaign we sought to dispel the most common myths that opponents of marriage equality throw out when they argue against us. With these arguments neutralized, opponents of marriage equality had nothing to say and could only vote “no” for nothing more than political reasons. This is because you talked to your Senators about these myths. You made them understand that marriage equality in no way affects freedom of religion. You explained to them exactly why civil unions are just another example of separate and unequal treatment by government.
With Wednesday’s vote we now have our roadmap. We know exactly who stood on the side of equality and justice for same-sex couples. We know who needs to be the focus of more of our time and energy, and we know that there will be some Senators who will simply have to be replaced. If they cannot stand on the side of equality—and represent what a growing majority of New Yorkers support—then we’ll find enough new Senators who will.

This is where we will start in 2010. We’ve said throughout this campaign that we will never stop fighting until we win and that continues to be our commitment to you. From continued work with some State Senators who voted against us to electoral work to support those who supported us and to defeat some of those who didn’t, we will be doing this work and we need you at our side doing it with us. Our army of LGBT and ally supporters must only grow in the coming weeks and months as we take our fight into the new year.

We must also remember that there are two vitally important bills that did not get votes in the State Senate this year: GENDA, the transgender civil rights bill, and Dignity, the safe schools bill. These bills will be at the top of our legislative agenda next year. The Assembly has passed these bills in consecutive years now, and there’s no excuse for why the Senate shouldn’t pass them when they return to Albany in January.

I would also urge everyone to take a deep breath and be sure and celebrate the holidays with your loved ones. There will be plenty of opportunities very soon to channel our anger and frustration into productive action that helps move us forward. The Pride Agenda is spending the next several weeks thinking thoroughly and strategically about a plan for next year. We are speaking to our community’s many friends and allies about what happened last week and how to best move forward. This includes our many friends who are elected officials, and we should all be thankful that our community does have many of these friends and that they are just as upset as we were about Wednesday’s result. Once we do this, we will have much more of the information we need to make informed, smart decisions about 2010.

I have no doubt that we will win on all fronts if we all stick together. It might not come as soon as we wanted it, but we will get there.

With continued hope and renewed determination,

Alan Van Capelle
Executive Director
Empire State Pride Agenda

Source:
http://eqfed.org/espany/home.html

http://eqfed.org/espany/home.html