New York lawmakers vote down gay marriage

New York state lawmakers rejected the opportunity to become the sixth U.S. state to allow same-sex couples to wed when they voted against legalizing gay marriage on Wednesday.

Gov. David Paterson had said he would have signed the bill into law if it had passed the State Senate but it was voted down 38 votes to 24. All Republicans voted against equal rights for their gay constituents and were joined by some conservative leaning Democrats.

New York’s Democratic-controlled state assembly has easily passed the bill legalizing same-sex marriage three times, but the legislation was never voted upon in the senate until now.

Sen. Tom Duane was the lead sponsor of the bill was clearly taken aback by the wide margin of the vote and told the New York Daily News: “I wasn’t expected to be betrayed, and so I have some justified anger,” Duane said. “But it’s just going to propel me to – I don’t want to say redouble my efforts, because my efforts have been pretty strong – but I’m not going to let up. … I’m angry. I’m disappointed. I am let down. I’m betrayed. But I am not going away.”

Eight of his fellow Democrats voted no.

“Unfortunately, I think there was a contagious lack of backbone that occurred here today,” Duane said. “And I’m angry about that and sad about that, but it was contagious. Similarly, the opposite would have meant far more votes than anyone had expected but unfortunately that wasn’t the way it went today.”

You try to steel yourself against feeling disappointed when something like this happens and yet that is impossible. It’s always a kick in the gut and it is why I am all for pushing for marriage equality on a federal level where bigoted voters and cowardly politicians won’t have a say in something so deeply personal.

Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont have legalized gay marriage, while 40 U.S. states have specific laws that ban gay marriage.