(New York City) New York Gov. David Paterson on Friday named U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to fill New York’s vacant U.S. Senate seat.

Gillibrand, 42, is a second-term lawmaker from upstate New York. She is a proven vote-getter in a largely rural eastern New York district that sprawls from the mid-Hudson Valley to north of Albany. She defeated a long-term Republican incumbent in 2006 and won re-election last year by a wide margin.

But she is a conservative “Blue Dog” Democrat, something that has raised the concerns of liberals who question her electability state wide in 2010.

“I appreciate the opportunity that you have afforded me and the trust that you have placed in me,” she told Paterson at a noon news conference. “I realize that for many New Yorkers, this is the first time you’ve heard my name and you don’t know much about me.”

On LGBT issues, Gillibrand earned an 80 out of a 100 rating from the Human Rights Campaign and HRC PAC deployed Campaign College participants to work on her re-election campaign last fall.

“Governor Paterson’s pick of Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand’s is a step forward for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community as she brings with her a strong record of support and understanding,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese.

She also gained the support of New York’s largest LGBT rights group – Empire State Pride Agenda – following a late Thursday night telephone conversation between Gillibrand and Pride Agenda Executive Director Alan Van Capelle.

“After talking to Kirsten Gillibrand, I am very happy to say that New York is poised to have its first U.S. Senator who supports marriage equality for same-sex couples,” said Van Capelle.  “She also supports the full repeal of the federal DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) law, repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) and passage of legislation outlawing discrimination against transgender people.  While we had a productive discussion about a whole range of LGBT concerns, I was particularly happy to hear where she stands on these issues.”

But in a recent interview with the LGBT Hudson Valley publication Inside Out, Gillibrand was more supportive of civil unions over marriage.

“What I’d like to do legislatively, on the federal level – and I think we’ll be able to do this with the new president -is actually make civil unions legal in all 50 states, make it the law of the land. Because what you want to fundamentally do is protect the rights and privileges of committed couples, so that they can have Medicare benefits, visit in the hospitals, have adoption rights.

“All [the] things that we give to married couples, committed gay couples should be eligible for. And then the question of whether you call it a marriage or not, what you label it, that can be left to the states to decide,” she told the publication.

“[It’s] so culturally oriented. My mom’s generation, they want their gay friends to have every right and privilege that they should be eligible for as a married couple, but they feel uncomfortable calling it marriage. To them, a marriage is a religious word that they learned from the Catholic Church: It’s a covenant between a man, a woman, and God. So they feel uncomfortable with the word. But they don’t feel uncomfortable with the rights and privileges.

“I think the way you win this issue is you focus on getting the rights and privileges protected throughout the entire country, and then you do the state-by-state advocacy for having the title.”

In Congress, Gillibrand was a cosponsor of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crime Act which would have allowed federal charges to brought in hate crimes against gays and give judges power to impose tougher sentences.

She also was a cosponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, which also passed the House in 2007 but without protections for the transgendered.

The legislation would have made it illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in hiring, firing, promoting or paying an employee. The bill is expected to be reintroduced this year with transgender protections and Gillibrand has indicated she also will support that version.

The appointment, which requires no further confirmation, came one day after Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John F. Kennedy, abruptly withdrew from consideration.

Kennedy was among a reported dozen New Yorkers being considered by Paterson replace Clinton. Among the dark horse candidates was openly gay Assemblymember Daniel O’Donnell.

Gillibrand is expected to be sworn in next week in the Senate.