AMY PAULIN IN THE NEWS
Friday, December 11, 2009
Same Sex Marriage Defeat Hits Home
Sound Report
By Paige Rentz
La’Von Gittens is at a point in his life where he is making plans.
A senior at SUNY Purchase who will graduate in the spring, the 22-year-old Brooklyn native hopes to move his publishing business to New York with his partner, Les Cornelius, a freshman film major. The State Senate’s highly-anticipated vote last week, which defeated the proposed same-sex marriage bill, hasn’t made plans any easier.
With cohabitation just around the corner, the inability to marry complicates matters for the couple. “You want to financially protect your partner if you pass away. You want the same benefits,” said Cornelius.
Gittens added, “If I’m paying the same taxes, abiding by the same laws and standards, then I should be given the same rights.”
Local legislators agreed with Gittens, voting in favor of the measure though many of their constituents were against it.
State Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer (D-Mamaroneck) said that in the days before the vote, her office was bombarded with phone calls telling her not to vote to legalize same sex marriage.
“My constituents have always been supportive of me even when I have done things they may not agree with because they understood I was doing it because I believed it was right,” she said. Oppenheimer believed the vote was a basic matter of civil rights. “I feel that all committed couples should have those same legal rights that I enjoy.”
Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-Scarsdale) said it was “devastating that politics interfere with a group’s civil liberties.” Paulin believed that politics should never have entered into the vote. “This was a moral vote, a vote of conviction,” she said. “I hoped and expected that the Senate would dig down deep and vote yes. I know many support gay marriage but made political choices.”
Her colleague George Latimer (D-Rye) said the topic brought out a lot of dialogue among his constituents, who were split about 50-50 in their views. “Although the numbers are almost evenly split it’s not a situation where people who hold their beliefs are lukewarm about it,” he said. “For people of certain religious beliefs it’s very objectionable and that triggered a lot of opposition to it.”
A Roman Catholic, Latimer understands the church’s teaching on the topic. “But at the end of the day it’s not a matter of what I believe, it’s what society allows for. In my mind religious institutions can continue to sanction marriages as they see fit,” he said.
State Sen. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx/Eastchester) emphasized this point. He said that in no way does the bill require that any religion recognize same-sex marriage. “I think that’s the dialogue that needs to take place moving forward,” he said.
The Rev. Deborah Tammearu, rector at St. Thomas Church in Mamaroneck, said that same-sex marriage is an emotionally disruptive issue.
In regard to the Senate vote, she said, “most of all it saddens me. Secularly, it’s about civil rights. Theologically, it’s an issue of being equal before God.” She noted that though same-sex marriage is very divisive for the Episcopalian Church nationally, on the local level, “our church has very wide doors and we welcome everyone,” she said. “We want all people to be given the same respect and dignity that everyone has.”
Though Purchase students Gittens and Cornelius were disappointed by the 38-24 vote, they weren’t very surprised by it.
“Homosexuality was in textbooks as a mental disorder in the 1970’s; we haven’t advanced enough obviously,” Cornelius said.
“This ignorance only proves we have a lot further to go,” Gittens added. “With these changing times, discrimination against something as personal as a marriage choice should not be such a ‘hot button’ issue.”
That many state senators could not take politics off the table long enough to protect the rights of a minority group is frustrating both to those senators who did and the underrepresented members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
“It really does anger me,” said Cornelius. “I unfortunately was not accepted in my town in Long Island. I know a lot of people wouldn’t vote for somebody like me.”
-With reporting by Christian Falcone, Dan Gabel, Charlie Johnson and Greg Maker