Governor Cuomo said he finds it “encouraging” that Republicans are negotiating with him over exceptions for religious organizations in his landmark same-sex marriage bill, which is one vote shy of passing the State Senate, and would make New York the first state to approve the measure by a vote of lawmakers.
“I find it encouraging,” Cuomo said of his negotiations with a handful of wavering Republicans in the State Senate, who have called for greater protections in the bill so that religiously-affiliated groups would not be exposed to discrimination lawsuits for denying services to homosexual couples.
“We’ve made good progress and we’re working well together,” Cuomo said, referring to the Republican holdouts.
“I believe we can address their concerns without going over the line,” into discrimination, he said.
On the broader point, Cuomo pointed to himself as an example of someone who could be loyal to his religious beliefs while supporting the bill.
“I happen to be a Catholic. And that’s my business and that’s my religion” Cuomo said. “This has nothing to do with my beliefs as a Catholic. This is marriage in a civil context. Marriage as defined by government, not by a religion. And the law has to protect that separation and that’s what we’re working through.”
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There is a serious error with this article. Vermont and New Hampshire approved same-sex marriage legislatively, both back in 2009.
Also, Maine approved the measure legislatively in 2009, but the law was repealed by referendum and never went into effect. Still, that’s three states that approved the measure legislatively, not judicially, two of which actually have same-sex marriage on the books strictly by legislative processes and not by judicial fiat.
re: nh/vermont…. i too do wonder: if the reporter is so unknowledgeable about the subject at hand, how can s/he do his or her job correctly? there are only a handful of states that allow marriage for same-sex couples; would it be too much to ask that your reporting about them be accurate? sorry for the rant, but seriously, this is no small mistake.
Vermont’s adoption of marriage equality was totally legislative. The two houses succeeded in overriding the Governor’s veto of the bill. That required a 2/3 vote in each chamber. A former New Yorker, I now live in Vermont and am reminded regularly of the inability of some New Yorkers to realize there is a whole world outside that state and many of us have adopted a range of human rights laws that New York continues to fail to take up or even acknowledge.