pssst. New York governor to push same-sex marriage bill

[progressoid]

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Gov. David Paterson announced Thursday he is introducing legislation to legalize same-sex marriage in his state.


Gov. David Paterson said it's time to to legalize same-sex marriage in New York. "For too long, gay and lesbian New Yorkers, we have pretended that they have had the same rights as their neighbors and their friends," Paterson said. "That is not the case."

The same bill was defeated in the state Senate in 2007 when former Gov. Eliot Spitzer proposed it.

"There is clearly a problem in that those individuals who are gay or lesbian who would live in a civil union are still not entitled to somewhere between 1,250 and 1,300 civil protections" that are available to married couples, Paterson said Wednesday.

When Spitzer introduced the bill, it passed in the Assembly 85-61 but died in the state Senate.

The bill's chief supporter in the Senate, Democratic state Sen. Thomas Duane, said Paterson "knows how hard it is to pass this kind of legislation."


http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/16/samesex.marriage.newyork/

Crossposted: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3834855

[alsame]

1. It's about time. n/t