Three state senators were on our panel at this past weekend's College Democrats of New York Convention. The discussion included the issue of legalizing same-sex marriage. The details and more...
for the latest info, check out the College Democrats of New York blog: http://www.collegedemsny.com/...
This past weekend featured the annual College Democrats of New York Convention, hosted by the St. Johns College Democrats in NYC. It was our biggest and best convention ever, with 125 students from across the state in attendance from 25 different schools.
The various events included speeches from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer who is looking to challenge Senator Gillibrand for her Senate seat, and Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, who could be our state's next Attorney General if Cuomo decides to run for Governor.
Our state senate panel featured State Senators Eric Adams, Liz Krueger, and Diane Savino. The issue of legalizing same-sex marriage was discussed in depth. While the bill proposed by Governor Paterson will easily pass the State Assembly with a strong Democratic majority, the Democrats hold a very slim margin in the state senate which the bill must pass.
Senator Krueger was optimistic that the bill would pass the state senate while Senator Adams stated that the bill was unlikely to pass. He stated that his African-American colleagues on the Democratic isle were unlikely to vote in favor of the bill due to mixed reaction in their districts. State Senator Diane Savino also agreed with Adams that the bill was likely to fall a few votes short. Still, all three state senators agreed that they needed to keep pushing the envelope until gay marriage was passed. As Adams explained, the same way that civil rights for African Americans and women kept pushing the envelope, gay marriage legislation must do the same. A big theme mentioned was that the Democratic state senators would need to do some "horse-trading" to get gay marriage passed, a hard pill for many of them to swallow who did not feel comfortable trading civil rights issues.
In addition to the African American state senators who Adams referred to who would not pass the bill (he did not mention specific names), there are several Hispanic state senators unlikely to vote in favor of the bill as well. However, a recent poll in NY stated that by a 14% margin, New Yorkers were in favor of legalizing gay marriage.
Dan Levin is the President-emeritus of the College Democrats of New York