By: NY1 News

Governor David Paterson will push the State Senate to vote on gay marriage during a special session in September, according to state officials.

The session will also consider measures to close the current fiscal year budget gap, unemployment insurance and ethics reform will also be covered.

On Thursday, State Senator Pedro Espada Jr. rejoined the Democratic party and restored the Senate’s Democratic majority.

That enabled the Senate to pass more than 100 bills, including a measure that allows the city to increase the sales tax by a half-percent.

NY1 Continuing Coverage

Lieutenant Governor appointee Richard Ravitch is a guest on NY1 Political program “Road to City Hall” tonight. The program airs at 7 and 10 p.m.

Also, join the conversation about the stalemate’s end on “The Call” with NY1′s John Schiumo at 9 p.m., or email your thoughts.

“Now that the New York State Senate has ended its impasse, the Pride Agenda has released the following statement by Executive Director Alan Van Capelle. Stay tuned for more news as it develops.

“Now that the stalemate is over and the State Senate has resumed its business, we expect that our equality will remain at the top of the chamber’s agenda.

Senators from both sides of the aisle have repeatedly said this past month that reform and doing the people’s business were central to the events that transpired. Our equality is the people’s business; reform means scheduling votes on our issues so Senators can vote their conscience.

Millions of New Yorkers want this to happen. Hundreds of thousands of LGBT New Yorkers—who continue to wake up each morning and go to bed each night without access to vital rights that protect all other citizens of this state—need this to happen.

In a state with over 19.5 million people, there are only 62 individuals who have been given the extraordinary power to help or hinder our march toward equality. Not one piece of LGBT legislation has ever passed the New York State Senate without strong bipartisan support. We are happy to see the State Senate functioning once again and we’re ready to get back to work with both Democrats and Republicans to pass legislation important to our community.”

via Big Gay News

April 14th, 2009 | Category: Headlines

Gov. David A. Paterson on Thursday will announce plans to introduce legislation to legalize same-sex marriage, according to people with knowledge of the governor’s plans. Mr. Paterson’s move, which he first signaled last week after Vermont became the fourth state to allow gay and lesbian couples to wed, reflects the governor’s desire to press the issue with lawmakers in Albany as other states move ahead with efforts to grant more civil rights to homosexuals.

The action in Vermont, where state legislators overrode Gov. Jim Douglas’s veto of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, came less than a week after the Iowa Supreme Court granted same-sex couples the right to marry. …

Read the full story from The New York Times.

Two years after New Jersey legalized civil unions for same-sex couples, nearly half the state’s residents favor allowing gay people to marry, a new Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll has found.

by Associated Press
Tuesday September 02, 2008

A Bronx judge has thrown out the first direct legal challenge to Gov. David Paterson’s move to recognize out-of-state gay marriages.

In a ruling today, state Supreme Court Judge Lucy Billings said the policy is a “permissible, if not mandated, step toward the objective of equality” for gays. Her finding comes as thousands of gay New Yorkers are expected to take advantage of a new Massachusetts law letting them wed there.

Source

When David A. Paterson was growing up and his parents would go out of town, he and his little brother would stay in Harlem with family friends they called Uncle Stanley and Uncle Ronald.

By JEREMY W. PETERS
The New York Times
Published: May 29, 2008

ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson has directed all state agencies to begin to revise their policies and regulations to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions, like Massachusetts, California and Canada… [source]

ALSO: Gay rights advocates score wins in NY, Calif.
By MICHAEL GORMLEY – 6 hours ago from The AP (click here)

Thoughts?

April 08, 2008

N.Y. Governor David Paterson addresses the LGBT community at The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s 2008 New York Leadership Awards.