Commentary & analysis:
NY State Senate rejects "gay marriage" bill, shocks homosexual lobby
What does this mean to you?
POSTED: Dec 7, 2009
Last Wednesday's rejection of the same-sex "marriage" bill in the New York State Senate was, like the Maine vote last month, a huge defeat for the homosexual movement. The bill had the support of all the major New York political figures. The Democrat-dominated Legislature was poised to pass it. They thought they would have the votes. It was seen as a done deal.
But as the New York Times observed the following day:
The 38-24 margin startled proponents of the bill, and signaled that political momentum, at least right now, has shifted against same-sex marriage, even in heavily Democratic New York.
The vote followed more than a year of lobbying by gay rights organizations, who have poured close to $1 million into New York legislative races to boost support for the measure.
So what happened? It was people rising up, taking advantage of events, and sending politicians a clear message.
Basically: (1) Diverse religious groups rose up and loudly voiced their outrage. This was especially important in conservative districts with liberal senators. (2) National pro-family money (particularly from the National Organization for Marriage) helped with several hundred thousand dollars in media ads. They also made threats to fund opponents in primary elections of Republicans who caved in (none did). (3) The momentum of recent pro-family/conservative victories in Maine, New Jersey, Virginia, and the particularly New York's 23rd congressional district, where the pro-traditional marriage Democrat won and the pro-gay-marriage Republican was forced to drop out, in a large part over that issue. And (4) people who are out of work and suffering economically think the Legislature has better things it ought to be doing.
Unlike Massachusetts and other New England states, New York does not have a major well-known pro-family organization to coordinate these fights. But things just moved forward on their own!
We talked to Rabbi David Eidensohn in Monsey, NY, who works closely with Rabbi Yehuda Levin and other Orthodox leaders. He said that the Orthodox Jewish and Catholic communities, and particularly various Protestant groups, really stepped up and were extremely vocal. This had not happened in the past, at least not in any organized manner. And it started an interesting momentum. Rabbi Eidensohn said that people around the state saw this outrage and gained more courage to speak up on their own. It became contagious as more and more angry people contacted their legislators.
In the end, the homosexual lobby couldn't sustain their grip and the bill failed.
But can that happen here? As Sarah Palin would say, "You betcha!" Politicians are basically the same everywhere. It just takes the right conditions and lots of angry people. As the late US Sen. Everett Dirkson famously said "When I feel the heat, I see the light!"
