The Gay Marriage Litmus Test
During the night, people are now talking about Assembly Member Helene Weinstein, who heads the Assembly Judiciary Committee and has kept the Richard Gottfried-sponsored marriage equality bill buried in her committee. She is listed by ESPA as having a "position on marriage equality for same-sex couples unknown or unclear." She must come out for the bill, and have it passed in her committee, or her position is totally unacceptable. Perhaps her friends in the Assembly need to hold her accountable and stop covering for her. I am told that she does not go to LGBT endorsement meetings or events or return questionnaires. Hmmm, what is this all about?
It's another example of how gay activists are increasingly comfortable with the 'with us or against us' argument on the issue of gay marriage. Nathan Riley makes the same case, with less acidity, over here.
-- Azi Paybarah
Helene Weinstein is a closet case! Come out come out come out Helene!
Roskoff creeps me out, but he's right.
Anybody who thinks that Assembly committee chairs have any authority to "hold up a bill" or "pass a bill" in their committee is naive and ignorant of how the legislative process really works. Speaker Silver makes the first and last call on all legislation before the Assembly, and nothing goes anywhere without his approval. Conversely, nothing is held back without his say-so. LGBT activists should direct their justifiable anger at the Assembly's Democratic leadership.
Anybody who thinks that Assembly committee chairs have any authority to "hold up a bill" or "pass a bill" in their committee is naive and ignorant of how the legislative process really works. Speaker Silver makes the first and last call on all legislation before the Assembly, and nothing goes anywhere without his approval. Conversely, nothing is held back without his say-so. LGBT activists should direct their justifiable anger at the Assembly's Democratic leadership.
You read my mind, Morty. This has been an open secret for years. In fact, wasn't Helene on the cusp of getting outed, not just for living with her girlfriend, but for living with her girlfriend *on the Upper West Side of Manhattan*??
ESPA are just hypocrits, so why should weinstein be any different?
This is going to become a bigger and bigger issue in NY, especially with Spitzer coming in as governor.
Anyone interested in protecting traditional marriage in NY better get organized in the opposition to this movement.
Robert,
Protecting traditional marriage from what? A 50% divorce rate? Give me a f'ing break.
Marriage is already defined, so you gay activists can try to undefine it all you want. It still won't fly. God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.
What about Assemblymembers Glick and O'Donnell who protect their lesbian sister Weinstein in the Assembly let's take them to task for this bill going nowhere!
Buzz, you may be unhappy about the divorce rate. So am I. However, recent development doesn't justify overturning a 3000 year old institution that has served as a bedrock principle for the development of our society.
Traditional marriage is the foundation of the family, upon which the future of our civilization is based. Fun SciFi plots where children are hatched and raised by gov't instead of reared by a mother and father is not based in any reality.
Children ahve th ebest chance at success if they are raised in a stable family with one mother and one father. There is no getting around that, and as long as marriage is an insitution built around raising children, we shouldn't tamper with it to serve certain current political agenda's.
Sorry for bad spelling. Rushing for lunch.
Helene Weinstein better get Vinnie Gentile on the phone about Roskoff's tactics.
Mr Hornak,
Who said anything about overturning marriage? What is being discussed is expanding it, not overturning it. What supporters of a gay marriage ban have failed to do is explain how letting gay and lesbian partners marry changes anything about your own marriage.
And to follow your argument about marriage between one man and one woman as being the best way to raise children, 1) There is no research done by independent researchers that validates your argument and 2) What about all of the children being raised by gay and lesbian partners? If your argument IS correct, wouldn't those children benefit by having married parents?
The New York State Assembly is filled with closet case gay and lesbian people. Assemblywoman Weinstein must feel right at home.
Of course she "personally" thinks gay marriage is o.k. because she'd like to get hitched to her girfriend one day.
But when will she come out of the closet on this issue?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Helene Weinstein, Jim McGreevey, Mark Foley and countless other closeted pols.
What good do these cowards do the average gay person on the street? NONE!
I for one am fed up with the whole lot of them.
Josh, you may see it only as an "expansion" of the definition of marriage, but most people do not. The legal definition of marriage qualifies it as being one man and one woman, and that has been a historical precedent that has served as one of the foundations our society has been built on.
Now, I have no opinion on what two consenting adults do in the privacy of their home. However, I can turn your question around and ask how would it change heterosexual marriages if we allowed polygamy or any other marital configuration.
The answer is that no change in the definition of marriage affects any single other marriage, but our society as a whole. Changing the nature of marriage from one of family stability designed to foster the rearing of children, to whatever anyone wants it to be, changes everything. It os not just a minor expansion, but a total redefinition. One which the vast majority of Americans are very opposed to.
To Josh:
People like Mr. Hornak will never concede that heterosexual marriage will remain unchanged. They need to pretend that they're "protecting" something from a "threat", otherwise theire entire argument will fall apart and they'll have to admit that they really do not have any stake in the whole debate. In 1920, people like him would have said that giving women the right to vote was overturning democracy.
Does anyone know when Helene Weinstein comes up for reelection? I want to launch an all out campaign to get here defeated. I think she must have been adopted or has adopted children or gave a child up for adoption and is ashamed of it because she is also against the Adoptees Bill of Rights, which allows adoptees the right to get their original birth certificate and thus find their true heritage. She has kept the Adoptees Bill of Rights stuck in the Codes Committee for years. She uses the same underhanded tactics that she uses with the Gay Marriage bill. It's time to vote her out!
You are soooooooooooo right about Helene Weinstein. OF course she is a lesbian. She lives with her lesbian partner and has always been a lesbian. And she'll do anything to hide it. Her only agenda? Helene Weinstein. Take this note to the father's rights folks too if you know them if you wonder why she is not helping them.
From one on the inside who knows with certainty. (Hillary is her friend's name.)
You are soooooooooooo right about Helene Weinstein. OF course she is a lesbian. She lives with her lesbian partner and has always been a lesbian. And she'll do anything to hide it. Her only agenda? Helene Weinstein. Take this note to the father's rights folks too if you know them if you wonder why she is not helping them.
From one on the inside who knows with certainty. (Hillary is her friend's name.)
Helene's private life has nothing to do with her politcs. If she feels not to support same sex marriages, so be it. I think she has a lot of courage to do so.