Posted by:

Don't Ask, Don't Give - The DNC Boycott

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 04:36 AM

Despite Gov. Paterson’s efforts to bring the issue of marriage equality to a vote, the New York State Senate adjourned the extraordinary session set by the governor yesterday without voting on marriage equality. The vote has now been delayed indefinatey. “Our community has spent the past few years making the case to 62 state senators for why we should be treated equally by the laws of our state,” said Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda. “The time for making cases is over. We’ve heard dozens of excuses and we’ve been told countless times that we’ll have to wait for equality.” The bill’s sponsor in the Senate, Tom Duane, could not say whether the bill would come to the floor. "I am optimistic," Mr. Duane said.

Though it is clear that we do have some supporters within the Democratic Party, it is also just as clear that the powers that be within the party, both state and nationally, have absolutely no intention of using any of their political capital to advocate for our equality. These continued acts of cowardice by the Democrats only serve to bolster Americablog's recent call for an LGBT boycott of donations to the Democratic National Committee. The boycott has now been cosponsored by Daily Kos, Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake, Dan Savage, Michelangelo Signorile, David Mixner, Andy Towle and Michael Goff of Towle Road, Paul Sousa (Founder of Equal Rep in Boston), Pam Spaulding, Robin Tyler (ED of the Equality Campaign, Inc.), Bil Browning for the Bilerico Project, and apparently even HRC seems to have given "a tacit endorsement, or at least not a public disavowal, of the strategy." You can join the boycott and sign the pledge, here.

UPDATE: Gov. Paterson announced last night during a press conference that he will once again call the senate into another extraordinary session on Nov. 16th and 17th and that an agreement has been worked out by which the Senate leadership has, finally, agreed to debate and vote on a marriage equality bill before the end of 2009.