Albany, NY – New York’s Democrat-led Assembly passed a bill to legalize gay marriage in what its supporters called a historic civil rights achievement.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The State Assembly passed the measure by an 80-63 vote tonight for the fourth time in two years.
But the critical vote by the Republican-led Senate won’t happen until at least Thursday, and more likely Friday, if the chamber’s Republican majority brings the bill to the floor.
Assemblyman Charles Lavine of Long Island said he believes his chamber’s approval of gay marriage means that somewhere America’s founding fathers “have smiles on their faces.”
Supporters say the bill, if enacted, would provide married gay couples 1,300 legal rights they are now denied.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent some time in a phone bank Wednesday night, convincing legislators to vote for the measure.
Assemblyman Dov Hikind of said gay marriage is wrong in the eyes of God.
Hikind, a Democratic assemblyman from Brooklyn, waved a copy of the Hebrew Bible and invoked religious principle in arguing against the measure.
“You want to tell God he doesn’t know what he’s talking about?” Mr. Hikind said.
This is a VERY sad day for NY State. You are one step closer to a full blown gay lifestyle being shoved down your throat. Enjoy it and then kick yourselves for voting liberal like you do. Yes, this is society downfall!
I know Dov Hikind can see directly into the “eyes of God,” but I think this is just fine. Let’s not worry about what other people do, okay? People deserve equal rights. Worry about your family, don’t focus so much on other peoples’ families, unless they’re committing fraud or something. Getting married isn’t a crime unless you do it as a closeted person making believe your straight and leading on a person of the opposite sex.
Ok….so can we now move on from this?…Gays will be gay, and that will never change as most gays aren’t followers of the Torah. So now they can share certain benefits and publicly feel self-validated. Again, I’m not condoning this, but the reality is that it changes nothing with regards to gay behavior. So let’s move on from this, and focus on more pressing issues facing our community.
So whats the news? The Senate will approve this bill on Friday or next Tuesday and the Governor is planning a big signing ceremony in New York City. Its time for yiddeshe mosdos and politicians to move on and focus on real issues and get over this obcession with gay marriage.
The founding fathers are turning over in their graves as the country they were willing to give their lives for sinks farther into the abyss!! New York deserves this with politicians like weiner and spitzer elected by the people, morals go out the window.
Yes, we’ve heard all the arguments about a nuanced approach to support for various candidates, but the bottom line is this: support for liberal candidates by ANY frum group was at a minimum indirectly responsible for this vote.
We should at least have our eyes open when supporting high-spending liberals, because they also offer the very same support to any and all gay causes.
(Reply to #2 ): You make an excellent point, and it’s the first time I’ve seen this “elephant in the room” addressed on VIN. The fact is there are many gay people hiding in “straight” marriages. And yes, I mean in the frum community.
I have friends who are stuck with husbands they never should have married. These women figured out their spouse’s secret, and now face a real dilemma.
The gay marriage bill should not be our primary focus. We should be even more concerned and alarmed about our daughters and sisters and friends, many of whom are in relationships that are less than authentic, with men who are living less than authentic lives. It’s unfair to these men who are forced to hide in loveless marriages, and unfair to the women they marry who end up lonely, upset and confused.
Its already been legal in a bunch of states for quite a while and I dont see the jews of connecticut packing up their bags…
To # 2: Your outburst against worrying on what others do makes me think that when you see wrongdoings you really never take a side… Yeah right.
But to the point! Did anybody deny them rights? (Besides the Torah) By The Way! Is upholding the law of the Torah a denial of rights? And do we have to give them a marital status when its not? What if a person wants to marry a DOG? Do we deny their rights for not giving them full marital status? Do we have to change definitions and terms of words and meanings of laws because of them?
Who cares what they do? Who wants to care? You see Dov Hikind as the person who only talks about Gay marriage? Or did he deliver other goods for his community too? And as an assembly man isn’t his job to speak out? Who are you to talk? What did you do for your community?
And finally: Nobody wants to know their obsessions and nobody would ever ask for it if only they do what they want without this unwanted immoral publicity. This is just one step in the direction of total destruction of humanity as we knew it. We are not harassing them we just ask them to do what they do in silence. Leave the world alone. (This all is written to you Mr #2 only if you are not … Yourself but if you are I retract it all its a waste of words you wouldn’t understand!)
Good. They will have the freedom that the rest of us do. While we may not be comfortable with it their right to live their private lives as they see fit helps guarantee ours.
So I assume this means that if a yeshiva hires a math teacher and finds out he is gay, and they let him go, they will now be sued. It’s an upside down world. Whoever thinks this won’t affect our community is wrong. Our children’s teachers may end up being openly gay in the not too distant future.
The point most of you are missing is that with a “yes” vote, they are allowing this to be brought out into the open. That is NOT the way we should want it to be! Do you want to expose your precious kinderlach to that? NO WAY!
You will be walking down 13th ave or Ave J with your little munchkin and you will see 2 people of the same gender in a public display of affection. What will you tell your kid?? “Oh, its ok for them to be doing that because after all I dont care what they do with their lives.” If thats your answer, STOP having kids now because that is NOT the derech haTorah!
Reply to #2
When are we allowing people to walk stark naked on the street, and when are we legalizing urinating on the street? We could do whatever we want, can’t we?! Its a free country. How about incest? Why is that outlawed? Why can’t we marry two women, and why can’t a women marry two men?! Why should we care?! We shouldn’t care what other people do, right?! After all, morals is something that everyone should worry about for in their own homes, and let other people do whatever the wish, as long as they physically don’t hurt anyone!
I just keep on wondering why always[and only]those kind of Jews like sheldon silver and mike bloomberg keep on pushing and trying to bring this law in effect.
Just looks like commentator no. 2 is one of those kind.
Your reactions have been delightful. Especially #21 , who equates legalization of gay marriage to public urination and incest. These people are already in relationships, who does it hurt if they marry? If they can’t marry in your shul fine, but who cares if they marry someplace else? How on earth does it hurt you? Gay couples can have relationships as respectable as anybody else. They take care of their homes, they go to work, they raise decent children. Why on earth are all of you so threatened by it? Nobody’s forcing you to marry someone of the same gender.
Methinks people are afraid that more frum Jews will come out of the closet. Don’t worry, everyone is safe in the closet, making wives and husbands miserable wondering why they’re not enough. Life will go on as usual for our communities.
It’s going to happen, so get used to it. Focus on corruption in OUR communities. Focus on child molestation. Money-laundering. Cheating in order to get gov’t benefits. Tax evasion. Hiking up of prices in order to get more money from our fellow Jews who have no alternative but to buy from us. The list goes on and on…
I just don’t get it. On the one hand even Democrats are decrying the immoral shenanigans of Anthony Weiner while at the other they are joined by Republicans in cheering on this movement to make New York the new capitol of Sodom and Gemorrah. Isn’t an open gay realtionship at least as immoral as what Anthony did? If it is not the word of G-d that decides what is moral and what is not, then what or who does?
Quote ” did you ever see what the Gemara in Chullin says about gay marriage? It says that Hashem doesnt destroy the world because at least the goyim would never have gay marriage. Pretty serious stuff, unless you are an apikores “
This is not a joke. It’s one thing for people to BE gay. That’s been going on for at least 5,000 years. It’s another issue to live in a place where their “ketubot” are accepted by the local gov’t as binding.
The words of hachamim are not to be taken lightly. What are we supposed to do if it passes? I dont know!