In other words, the bill will at best be tabled until next year will it will likely expire.

Thanks, Guest!

Chris: It’s not ‘good’ on its own, but it could end up being a good thing.

It would be good if it brings the subject to the Senate floor instead of something that’s considerably more behind closed doors.

We shall see in the coming days whether or not that happens.

At this point, I don’t think anyone knows whether this strange power play is good or bad for marriage fairness. Rather than thinking about that, lobby your Senators if you care about achieving equality in this legislative session. An easy way to do so is to visit MarriageNY.com that features easy methods of contacting your Senators

CORRECTION: I meant to say “prochoicers” instead of “women” as arms of the Democratic party. Obviously many women are swing voters.

Chris, this is good because Smith, the ousted Democratic leader, was never going to allow a vote on the marriage bill. He couldn’t. If he had allowed a vote, Diaz would have bolted to the Republicans and flipped the state Senate to the GOP. We were at an impasse. And when you’re at an impasse, disrupting the status quo is a good thing. The new leader is not beholden to Diaz, perahps the most antigay member of the Senate despite his nominal affiliation with Democrats.

It is clear to me that Smith and Diaz had a secret deal, as Guest says. It is the only theory that makes sense. Back in December, Smith openly said that marriage would have to wait because of Diaz’s objections. Then, Smith quickly backpeddaled and declared that he’d never sell out gay people for his leadership position. But that’s exactly what he then did in secret. Since December, the evidence of the secret deal has mounted. First, there were leaks about Smith referring the bill to a committee with a hostile chairman, who would let it die and refuse to send it to the floor. Then, Smith himself said–bizarrely–that it would be “inappropriate” to pass the bill with Republican support–condemning it to die since every Dem would have to support it and Diaz would never do so. Then, Smith shifted again to the excuse that he’d never bring the bill to the floor until it was assured of passage, something that was practically impossible because a number of Senators have declined to take a position until the bill goes to the floor. Smith has had one pretext after another. What they all scream is that he was always going to find some excuse for not letting the bill go to a vote because he’d made a secret deal with Diaz. Simultaneously, the smarmy Smith showed up a gay events and proclaimed that he *personally* supported the bill. He’s disgusting.

Espada just may be able to get the bill to the floor. Although he bolted from the Democrats, he’s a cosponsor of the marriage bill. And part of his switch was an agreement to make him Senate President. He’s not just one cross-over among 30 Republicans; he’s in the top leadership position, and they owe him their restored majority status.

You folks have to stop thinking about New York Republicans with George W. Bush in mind. New York Republicans are nowhere near as vehemently homophobic as national Republicans. They have, in the past, reached out to the gay community and cut deals with us to strategically wedge us away from the Democratic party on occasion.

This is how a small minority must behave in the political process. We must have no permanent friends, and no permanent enemies. When Republicans are willing to reach out to us–which hopefully we become more frequent in the future–we should use their reaching out as leverage to force the Democrats to stop taking us for granted and doing nothing about our issues!

Folks, although I’m a lifelong Democrat, we have to break of this knee-jerk mentality that Democrats are always good for gays and Republicans are always bad. If you want to be just an arm of the Democratic party, like African Americans and women, the Democratic party will take you for granted and de-prioritize your needs. They’ll sneer at you: Where else do you have to go? Our power increases dramatically when, at particular times and in particular places we can respond, “We can vote for the Republican instead of you.”

This coup is actually a good thing for marriage equality in New York.

Here’s what democratic senator Ruben Diaz who opposes the marriage equality bill said about his rumored change to GOP: “Today? No. Tomorrow? Who knows? Tomorrow is another day. It’s always another day. You ask me do I plan to do that. I say, no. In the future, who knows what the future brings. The only thing I can tell you, and you can interpret this any which way you want: When I give my word, I keep my word. In order for me to break my word, you have to break yours first.”

I think that the only way to read the comments of senator Diaz is that there actually was a secret deal between him and former majority leader Smith and that Smith had given his word not to bring the marriage equality bill for a vote. This would explain his steadfast refusal to allow the vote.

Hoping for good news for New York!