NY Gay Pride Parade Fortifies Opponents' Resolve
The annual Gay Pride Parade saw hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers celebrating the same-sex marriage law Sunday but that only strengthened opponents’ determination to prevent what they call the perversion of marriage.
The organizers of the procession claimed that over 2 million people celebrated the state’s new law giving gay couples in New York equal marital rights and hoped for a similar move all across the country.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who championed the gay marriage bill and was the star of the Sunday’s event, was greeted by signs saying, “Thank you, Governor Cuomo” and “Promise kept,” according to Associated Press. “New York has sent a message to the nation … It is time for marriage equality … If New York can do it, it’s all right for everyone else in the country to do it,” Cuomo was quoted as saying.
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But opponents elsewhere said they were now preparing to give a tougher fight. “It is absolutely important that we continue fighting just as hard, even stronger, in Maryland and everywhere else,” Robert Broadus, the head of Protect Marriage Maryland, told Reuters.
Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, stated his organization had planned to spend $2 million over the next 18 months to defeat the legislators who supported the bill in the Senate.
It was after Republican senators Mark Grisanti and Stephen Saland decided to vote in favor of the gay marriage bill at the last minute that the measure was passed by a slim majority and signed into law late Friday.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he was not going to legalize same-sex marriage. “In our state, we’re going to continue to pursue civil unions,” Christie said on NBC’s Meet the Press program Sunday.
“I am not a fan of same-sex marriage. It’s not something that I support... I believe marriage should be between one man and one woman… I wouldn’t sign a bill like the one that was in New York,” said the Republican governor.
New York Sen. Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx), the only Democrat who voted against the gay marriage legislation Friday night, said the Republicans had become “a tool of the Democratic party.”
“I always knew it would pass in New York, and if they allow it here the whole nation goes. But I am Christian first and then a Democrat… I always vote my conscience,” Metro daily quoted Diaz, a Pentecostal minister, as saying Sunday.
“They say in the Bible all these things will come to pass. They say there will be a time when good is bad and bad is good … I say the end is coming and they laugh at me, but the Bible calls on the faithful not to give up,” Diaz said.
Diaz added that the Republicans had “lost their vision” and he was “disappointed” with the party which “has always been the party that protects traditional values and family values.”
While New York became the sixth state to allow same-sex marriage, most states have constitutional bans on gay marriage.
The majority-support claims by advocates of gay marriage also remain unsubstantiated.
While a Gallup poll last month found that 53 percent of Americans believe gay marriage should be legalized, a poll by Alliance Defense Fund around the same time showed that 62 percent of Americans say marriage should be defined “only as a union between one man and one woman.”
