Assemblywoman Nolan (Photo: NYSassembly.gov)
June 27, 2011 By Christian Murray
Voters within the Sunnyside, Woodside and Western Queens districts played a major role in the passage of the Senate Marriage Equality Bill, according to Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan yesterday.
Nolan, a long-time supporter of gay marriage and LGBT causes, said that when this district’s two local senators voted in favor of the bill on Friday night, their votes were vital. In 2009, when the bill came up for a vote, the two senators who represented this region “opposed” it.
The Marriage Equality Bill cleared the Republican-controlled Senate (33-29), which was its biggest hurdle before it could become law, since the state Assembly and Gov. Andrew Cuomo were staunch supporters of it.
On Friday, Sunnyside’s 2009 “no” votes changed to “yes”. Mike Gianaris, who was elected as the new Democratic state senator for the Sunnyside/Woodside neighborhoods in 2010, voted for the bill. He came to office in 2011 pledging his support for it.
Gianaris took the senate spot, Nolan said, from long-time state senator George Onaroto, who voted against it in 2009. “Therefore, one senatorial vote was flipped in the area,” Nolan said.
Gianaris in a statement, released over the weekend, said: “I am proud to be one of the “yes” votes that made marriage equality a reality in our state. May our example set the tone for the rest of the country.”
Nolan said that when Sen. Joe Addabbo, who represents a sliver of Sunnyside, decided at the eleventh hour to vote in favor of the bill, it too made a big impact.
Addabbo reportedly said that in 2009, when he voted against the bill, 73 percent of the constituents who contacted his office opposed gay marriage, while this year about 80 percent asked him to vote in favor of it.
Nolan said that constituents’ views of the gay community had clearly changed in Western Queens in recent years, evidenced by the election of Jimmy Van Bramer, an openly gay councilman.
Van Bramer said today that the bill would not have passed if it weren’t for the votes of Gianaris and Addabbo. “It’s just the numbers. Take those votes away and it would have been a tie (31-31).”
He had high praise for Addabbo for his “courageous act” by changing his stance on the bill, and was complimentary of Nolan’s long-time support on this issue.
Van Bramer said in a statement on Friday: “Today has been a day when our greatest ideals were on display – ideals like ‘liberty and justice for all’. This struggle has been long, and change is always difficult. We are proud that New York has debated this issue in an atmosphere of respect.”
Nolan said she had been a supporter of the bill in the state Assembly for over a decade. She said that she is looking forward to seeing her gay friends get married, and hopes that those who opposed the bill will begin to support it over time.
Meanwhile, Van Bramer, who has been in a relationship with Dan Hendrick for 12 years, was coy as to when he would tie the knot. “We’ve discussed it for a long time in anticipation of this great day…it’s probably not going to be until 2012.”
