Paterson to legalize gay marriage

NEW YORK | Gov. David A. Paterson announced plans Thursday to legalize same-sex marriage in New York state, comparing the effort to the fight for the abolition of slavery.

Mr. Paterson, whose job approval rating has plunged below 30 percent, is making a political gamble that he can ride the momentum of other states that recently have allowed the practice, but it’s unclear how the legislation will play in his state.

The proposal is the same bill the Democrat-controlled state Assembly passed in 2007 before the measure died in the Senate, where the Republican majority kept it from going to a vote. Democrats now control the Senate, but opponents are vowing to make sure this attempt fails as well.

Gay marriage is a crucial issue of equal rights in America that cannot be ignored, Mr. Paterson said. He was joined by New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and other elected officials and gay-rights advocates.

“For too long, gay and lesbian New Yorkers - we have pretended they have the same rights as their neighbors and friends,” Mr. Patterson said. “That is not the case. All have been the victims of what is a legal system that has systematically discriminated against them.”

Mr. Paterson, who is black, invoked black icons Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe in drawing a parallel between the fight to eliminate slavery in the 1800s to the current effort to allow gay marriage.

“Rights should not be stifled by fear,” Mr. Paterson said. “What we should understand is that silence should not be a response to injustice.”

Meanwhile, state Sen. Ruben Diaz of the Bronx, also a Democrat but an opponent of same-sex marriage, was meeting with religious leaders to discuss how to block the bill.

Mr. Diaz, an evangelical pastor, said it was disrespectful of Mr. Paterson to introduce the legislation in the same week that Catholics celebrated the installation of New York City Archbishop Timothy Dolan, a ceremony that Mr. Paterson attended Wednesday.

“I think it’s a laugh in the face of the new archbishop,” Mr. Diaz said Thursday before the start of his meeting. “The Jews just finished their holy week. The Catholics just received the new archbishop. The evangelical Christians just celebrated Good Friday and Resurrection. He comes out to do this at this time? It’s a challenge the governor is sending to every religious person in New York and the time for us has come for us to accept the challenge.”