On Friday, New York joined the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa and Vermont and Washington DC as places where same-sex marriage is legal in the United States.
Opponents of same-sex marriage have vowed to fight back and outlaw gay marriage as they did in California and Maine.
The National Organisation for Marriage (NOM) has said it will spend at least US$2 million in 2012 to campaign against Republicans who switched sides.
“Politicians who campaign one way on marriage and then vote the other, need to understand: betraying and misleading voters has consequences, too. We are not giving up, we will continue to fight to protect marriage in New York,” said NOM president, Brian Brown.
“The Republican Party in New York is responsible for passing gay marriage, and sadly it’s the families of New York who will pay the worst price of the new government-backed redefinition of marriage.”
Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council accused NY Republicans of taking bribes over the matter.
“Enormous political coercion has resulted in a profound failure of moral courage in the New York Senate. A clear majority of the people of New York oppose counterfeit ‘marriage,’ but Gov. Cuomo and anti-family lawmakers have shown that their allegiance is to a small but vocal minority seeking to redefine marriage and family,” he said in a statement. “The so-called religious protections that were tacked on to the bill will ultimately do nothing to protect the religious rights of New York citizens. As we go forward there is little doubt that the “incentives,” some taxpayer funded, used to sway votes, especially Republican ones, will be exposed.”
New York’s Roman Catholic Church has campaigned openly against the legality of same sex marriage.
The bishops are concerned that marriage will be ridiculed and the Church may face government sanctions for continuing to teach about one of the cornerstones of civilisation, the traditional view of marriage.
“The passage by the legislature of a bill to alter radically and forever humanity’s historic understanding of marriage leaves us deeply disappointed and troubled,” said the New York Catholic Bishops in a statement.
While reminding people to treat homosexuals with respect, dignity and love, the bishops strongly affirmed that marriage as the joining of one man and one woman in a lifelong loving union that is open to children, ordered for the good of those children and the spouses themselves.
The Republican-controlled state senate voted 33-29 for a bill that had earlier been approved by the lower house, which has a Democratic majority.
The state, the most populous US state to allow same-sex marriage, does not have a residency requirement for getting married and the new law takes effect after 30 days.
“Now that we’ve made it here, we’ll make it everywhere,” said prominent activist Evan Wolfson.
Sources
- NCR – Statement of the Bishops of New York State
- NY Archbishop Timothy Dolan’s blog
- NPR
- BBC
- Washington Post
- Washington Independent
- Image: Washington Post