June 17, 2011

For Immediate Release

Mayor Bloomberg: Worse for Gay Marriage than Me

New York State Senator Reverend Rubén Díaz (D-Bronx) has released the following statement:

"New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been spending a lot of time and money in Albany to show how much he wants New York’s marriage laws redefined.

 

If we want to document the facts, one of the biggest impediments to same sex marriage rights in New York has been by Mayor Bloomberg.

 

In a Manhattan Court in 2005 Justice Doris Ling-Cohen ruled that gay marriage was legal in New York. At the time this ruling was celebrated as a victory for gay marriage rights advocates.

 

New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided that gay marriage was wrong for New York and ordered New York City's attorneys to appeal this decision. That appeal resulted in New York's highest court ruling that there is no right to marriage for same-sex couples under the New York State Constitution. That litigation has caused a lot of fighting and has cost a lot of money.

 

Now this year, because Mayor Bloomberg sees that Goveror Andrew Cuomo and other leaders are getting close to a victory on gay marriage legislation, he has been spending a lot of his money to make people forget what he did.

 

I believe that Mayor Bloomberg must be credited as having done a lot more than I have done to prevent gay marriage from being legal in New York."