In the Empire Strikes Back fear and hate is personified by a tyrannical sith lord. In the Empire State tyranny took a less obvious but no less evil form today as the New York Senate voted 38 to 24 against marriage equality. Here's the story from Reuters:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York state lawmakers voted against legalizing gay marriage on Wednesday, dashing gay rights activists' hopes that it would become the sixth U.S. state to allow same-sex couples to wed.
The New York state senate voted down the legislation 38 votes to 24. Governor David Paterson, a Democrat who supports gay marriage, had said he would have signed the bill into law if it had passed.
"This is an enormous victory," said Maggie Gallagher, the leader of the National Organization for Marriage, which opposed the law. "What you saw was the will of the people .... The culture really hasn't shifted on gay marriage."
Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont have legalized gay marriage, while 40 U.S. states have specific laws that ban gay marriage. Last month, voters in Maine chose to repeal a law that had legalized gay marriage.
This vote comes on the heels of the Manhattan Declaration, which Truth Wins Out Director Wayne Besen calls "a disturbing call for anarchy from a group of radical clerics and activists who believe they don’t have play by the same rules as other taxpaying Americans,” Besen continues, “We call on all Americans who value a free society to stand up and reject this theocratic and intolerant manifesto.”
So thank you to all those ignorant bigots out there who aren't satisfied living their own lives but instead have to stick their nose into the lives of their neighbors and deny them their equal rights. The joys of theocracy be praised!
By John Hosty-Grinnell