Great news and bad news. The New York State Assembly just became the third legislative body in the country to voluntarily approve same-sex marriage (after the California house and senate). Unfortunately, the Republicans still hold a two seat majority in the state senate, and the majority leader has vowed to never let it come up for a vote:
MassEquality has proven itself to be the best of the best. We have built a top-notch political powerhouse in MA, but our marriage rights are still not fully equal or secure. First, to obtain federal rights, we need to overturn DOMA. To do that, we need more states backing full marriage equality. It isn’t just a matter of having moral support or building a stronger Supreme Court case (although both of those things are important).
As we have seen here, flipping a state flips the entire political establishment. Once equal marriage becomes established law in NY and CA, it will become political poison for any Democrat and many Republicans to oppose it. Those state legislators are future members of Congress, cabinet members, federal judges, maybe even future presidents. The beauty of the federal system is, once we have support at the state and local levels, national support must follow.
MA is also heavily invested in NY. We commute back and forth between Boston and NYC. We have family networks scattered accross both states. We are much more similar politically than MA and say, Ohio or Texas. I think we need to keep the organization that we have here and redirect it to taking the NY state senate and securing the house. They sent money when it was MA working to protect marriage equality, now we have an obligation to do the same. We need to take the lessons learned and export them nationwide.
will our LGBT Leadership be able to stay unified like we were for a very short time in Massachusetts if we “export” what we did to New York State? It is naive at best to suggest that “MassEquality” was the only factor which won Massachusetts.
And many factors, such as personal connections with state legislators and the local-level political machinery will not transfer over. The bulk of the work will be done by NY gay rights organizations, as it should be.
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However, there is a lot that we CAN do, especially in the fundraising area, but even when it comes to sending in ground troops to canvass. We can also offer a great deal of logistical support and advice so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
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GLAD, for example, only serves the New England area, leaving the other 44 to Lambda Legal. Still, whenever they can provide information, advice, or legal resources they do it, filing amicus briefs in New Jersey, Virginia, and New York.
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I hate to see us fold up shop and go home when there is so much work left to be done.
On GLBT rights in Massachusetts alone:
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-Overturning 1913
-Reviewing the Costitutional Process to see if we need to make changes so what happened last Thursday never happens again (because we just as easily could have lost).
-Protecting transgendered rights, specifically establishing hate crime protections for people who are transgendered.
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The way I see it, that’s years of work for all Massachusetts glbt-rights organizations, including MassEquality.
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That said, I’m not opposed to them getting involved in New York. It would obviously be to our advantage if it were “only” Massachusetts with marriage equality. The more, the better. However, there’s only so much an ‘outsider’ organization can do, as we won’t be able to earn the same trust and won’t be as respected as New York organizations because those organizations wield the power of the voters behind them. That’s what made MassEquality so powerful in Massachusetts: the fact that it was seen as the gay-rights organization that could significantly change the vote anywhere in this state, not any particular member of their leadership, etc.
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They could provide testimony, facts and numbers proving why marriage equality is good for everyone. They could file any amicus briefs that come up. However, ultimately, the people of New York are going to have to be the change they want – which means they’ll either have to get rid of a lot of Republicans in their Senate or do what we did – and get a lot of those Republicans to support equality.
It is not necessary nor recommended to “take over” the NY fight. What we need to do is advise and educate them on how we did it. Give them the blueprint and let them go to work.
But! Money always helps start things rolling.
Yes! Seed money, and continuing contributations help get and keep things rolling.
Make sure! Contributions go to the best organizations.
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Most importantly, develop the infrastucture throughout the state.
Target selected opponents, and support vulnerable supports.
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It won’t happen overnight!
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Peace!
Rem
…New York’s home grown Empire State Pride Agenda might resent the interference. On the other hand, MassEquality might be able to provide some advice and other assistance to the NY group, in the background.
not setting up camp in competition. But I do think that we need to recognize
1) What a historic opportunity it is to be this close
2) Their interests are our interests
Believe it or not, things are beter Albany than they have been for a while. Good reading on this is The Albany Project, kind of a BMG for New York.
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They really have double duty over there — on one hand is the Republican tilt of the assembly, but also is a level of corruption beyond what Bulger and Finneran achieved. There are many reasons to be glad we live here in the Bay State, and looking at Albany is yet another.
Those of us that support Equal marriage in Massachusetts have a job to finish before we start branching out. The Reps and Senators targeted by the other side in 2008 have earned the full attention and support of pro-gay marriage forces. I believe that MassEquality understands that and is focusing on that task.
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I do fully agree on the fundraising front – but before we start exporting political talent lets show that we will finish the job here.
It’s important to support those who made this possible, particularly the ones being targetted by Vote on Marriage.
it is a great idea for the organization to share its expertise with other states. MassEquality hosted the Equality Federation in Boston last year. During the convention there were many seminars in which MassEquality shared their ideas and techniques with other states. I presented a workshop on MassEquality’s incredibly successful door-to-door canvass operation. It would be a great service to the rest of the country if MassEquality were to continue to share their ideas and winning strategies with many other states.
Want to promote equality in NY? Help NY gain 3+ more Democratic state senators. We’re not likely to get gay marriage in NY with a GOP majority in the senate [which is, btw, traditional in NY though I have no idea why].
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So — check the map. Look to see what state senate districts are held by GOPs with strong Dem challengers, and write a check. Look to see which districts are closest to you and go visit for a long weekend or longer, knocking on doors.
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It’s hard for the NY state senate to behave “blue” when it’s got a majority of “reds”. Turn them blue, and we’ll see better behavior on all fronts, including gay marriage.
Which, I believe, was the last time Joe Bruno had serious opposition in the State Senate. I grew up in that district and the first fundraiser I ever went to was for the woman running against him.
The backbone of the win here in Massachusetts was Arline Isaacson of the MGLPC, Norma Shapiro of the ACLU, and others outside of the MEQ framework (though of course they worked with MEQ).
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Again, there were so many factors that went into this victory (including timing) that it is naive to think that an “equality kit” is a simple task.
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Those of us who have lived this understand the inner workings and they are very very complex, not to say that New York cannot learn things from MEQ.