New York will not join other states in the U.S. that permits same sex marriage (gay marriage). The state’s senate voted against the legislation by a decisive margin of 38 to 24 on Wednesday, December 2, 2009. Several Democrats opposed the measure so the bill pushed by Governor David A. Paterson of New York needed Republican votes in order to pass but none of the senators voted for it. All Western New York senators, except Sen. Antoine Thompson, voted against the bill.
Executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference Richard Barnes, who represents the state bishops, said that the majority decision’s that opposed the gay marriage bill is a victory for the basic building block of the society.
Supposedly New York will be the sixth state in the U.S., next to Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and California to legalize gay marriage but because the bill didn’t pass on the Senate’s votes, it became the latest state to deal a setback to gay-marriage proponents. New Hampshire is now expected to be the sixth state to legalize the gay marriage which will begin on January 1, 2010.
Topics: gay marriage, human rights, New York, news, politics, US
