Tuesday, December 17, 2002

A story published today by the New York Times reports that and hours after the Republican-led state Senate mustered the votes to approve it, Gov. George Pataki on Tuesday signed into law a bill extending civil rights protections to gays and lesbians in the state.

With the governor's signature, New York became the 13th state to include gays and lesbians in its civil rights law. Despite its liberal reputation, the state has not been in the vanguard of efforts to extend equal legal status to gays and lesbians, lagging in passing legislation such as hate-crime laws that cover gays.

Other states have gone farther. Vermont allows same-sex civil unions, and Hawaii has a strong domestic partnership law. On Tuesday a high-ranking lawmaker in Connecticut said he expects his state would take up the subject of same-sex marriage next year.

The Democrat-led Assembly has passed the bill 10 years in a row.

The vote, 34-26, was not as close as lobbyists on both sides of the issue were predicting only an hour before the debate began. Pataki made calls late into Monday evening trying to persuade both Republican and Democratic lawmakers to vote yes.

But with only eight Republicans on board by midday, the Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, the man who had kept the issue from a floor vote for eight years, helped put it over the top by making a last-minute appeal to his Republican colleagues, his senior aides said. On Monday he had said he would not cajole his members to vote any particular way.

Thirteen of 36 Republicans and 21 of 24 Democrats voted for the bill.

Bruno had not promised to vote for the bill himself, but on Tuesday he rose to his feet and urged his colleagues to vote yes with him, saying that its time had come.

"Maybe I have become more enlightened," Bruno said. "But over the years I have felt that the present nondiscrimination laws in this state were more than adequate." The fact that there are "such strong feelings out there that this is necessary," he said, convinced him otherwise.

A story published today by the New York Times reports that and hours after the Republican-led state Senate mustered the votes to approve it, Gov. George Pataki on Tuesday signed into law a bill extending civil rights protections to gays and lesbians in the state.

With the governor's signature, New York became the 13th state to include gays and lesbians in its civil rights law. Despite its liberal reputation, the state has not been in the vanguard of efforts to extend equal legal status to gays and lesbians, lagging in passing legislation such as hate-crime laws that cover gays.

Other states have gone farther. Vermont allows same-sex civil unions, and Hawaii has a strong domestic partnership law. On Tuesday a high-ranking lawmaker in Connecticut said he expects his state would take up the subject of same-sex marriage next year.

The Democrat-led Assembly has passed the bill 10 years in a row.

The vote, 34-26, was not as close as lobbyists on both sides of the issue were predicting only an hour before the debate began. Pataki made calls late into Monday evening trying to persuade both Republican and Democratic lawmakers to vote yes.

But with only eight Republicans on board by midday, the Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, the man who had kept the issue from a floor vote for eight years, helped put it over the top by making a last-minute appeal to his Republican colleagues, his senior aides said. On Monday he had said he would not cajole his members to vote any particular way.

Thirteen of 36 Republicans and 21 of 24 Democrats voted for the bill.

Bruno had not promised to vote for the bill himself, but on Tuesday he rose to his feet and urged his colleagues to vote yes with him, saying that its time had come.

"Maybe I have become more enlightened," Bruno said. "But over the years I have felt that the present nondiscrimination laws in this state were more than adequate." The fact that there are "such strong feelings out there that this is necessary," he said, convinced him otherwise.