Republican Controlled New York State Senate Passes Gay Marriage Bill

After the religious exemption issues were cleared up yesterday, the New York state Senate passed by 33 to 29, the first gay marriage bill from a Republican controlled Senate and was sent to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who signed the bill into law hours after it had passed.

Four Republicans joined with 29 Democrats in the New York Senate to pass this bill, tipping the scales in favor for passage and some opponents of the bill are expressing severe criticism of those four Republicans.

The state assembly approved the marriage bill for the fourth time in as many years last week. A 2009 same-sex marriage vote in the then Democratic-controlled senate failed with only 24 votes.

In defense of those four Republicans, I will point to an argument I made when Obamacare was passed against the majority opinion of Americans with Democratic Senators and Representatives voting for it despite their own constituents pleading with them not to.

An elected officials job is to represent their constituents first and foremost, not their party. They are honor bound, if they have any honor or ethics, to listen to those that elected them and New York is known to be one of the most liberal states in existence with a very large gay and lesbian community.

Unlike the Obamacare Democrats, these four New York Republicans, no matter their personal views, respected the wishes of the majority of their constituents after making sure the religious constituents were also represented in this bill.

Cuomo, the assembly’s majority Democrats and state senate Republicans agreed to the exemptions Friday afternoon. The key sticking point was a clause that throws out the entire bill if any part of it is voided in the courts.

As a side note---

The irony here is that this news which has gay activists cheering and almost every news article written making it clear that it was a "Republican controlled" Senate that passed this bill in the largest state yet to pass a same-sex marriage bill, comes just a week after those very same gay activists tore into their Democratic President (Obama) for changing positions and pretending to confuse civil unions with same-sex marriage.

Gay activists must feel like they are in the Twilight Zone, having to hail the actions of a Republican controlled Senate while ripping into a Democratic President over a gay rights issue.

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Obama's New Excuse: He Meant 'Civil Unions' Not Marriage.... BOTH Times

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer told members of the far left liberal faction of the Democratic party at their annual bitchfest called Netroot Nations, that questionnaires Obama filled out and signed back in 1996, expressing Obama's support for gay marriage, weren't really filled out by Barack Obama, just signed by him. (Video at the link)

The White House backed away from that explanation claiming that Pfeiffer simply wasn't familiar with the situation nor the topic of the questionnaires, although they refused to address the issue at that time.

The White House should have bought themselves a second or two to think of how to spin Obama's "evolving" stances on gay marriages but it seems their new explanation is just as offensive to gay activists as Pfeiffer's attempt at spinning Obama's evolution was.

In 1996, as a candidate for the State Senate in Illinois, Mr. Obama responded to a questionnaire from a gay newspaper. “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages,” Mr. Obama wrote, “and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.”

White House officials have said Mr. Obama was really referring to civil unions, which he does support. (On Friday, Mr. Obama’s communications director, Dan Pfieffer, caused a brief kerfuffle by telling a conference of bloggers that Mr. Obama had not filled out the forms himself; the White House later said he was mistaken.)

Supporters of gay marriage are not amused by the latest spin attempt:

It seems the White House has a new explanation for the President's past support for gay marriage. You see, the President got confused. When Obama wrote in a letter to a gay newspaper that he supports same-sex marriage, he actually meant civil unions - because, apparently, "civil unions" sounds a lot like "marriage" if you say it really fast ten times in a row while you're drunk.

They also point out that Obama became "confused" not once, but twice.

He must have also gotten confused in the second questionnaire where he said the exact same thing about supporting gay marriage.

Yes, now Obama doesn't just look like he is flip flopping all around the issue, the new spin makes him appear ignorant and dumb as well.

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Gay Activists Up In Arms Over White House Lies Over Gay Marriage Questionnaire

At one of the many Netroots Nation conferences being held White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer was asked about Barack Obama's 1996 filled out and signed questionnaire which asserted that Obama supported gay marriage, a formal position he has backed away from since taking office.




Video below-



Yesterday we saw that many at the far left liberal annual bitchfest called the Netroot Nations are not happy with Barack Obama nor his administration and decisions over the last 2 1/2 years.

Add gay activists to those angry Democrats now.

AmericaBlog in response to Pfeiffer's denials about Obama having filled out the 1996 questionnaire:

So who is this poser who filled out the questionnaires and lied about Barack Obama's position on gay marriage? Here's one of the questionnaires, you can find the liar's signature at the bottom:

No, your eyes don't deceive you. That's Barack Obama who signed the questionnaire.

You can see a copy of the questionnaire which was then typed out and signed by Barack Obama on page #2 of the PDF Politico provides.

The author of that survey and the editor at the time of the magazine that published it, Tracy Baim, has responded to Pfeiffer's claims that Obama did not fill out the survey, in the video above.

Despite a statement by President Obama's White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer June 17 that a 1996 survey response was not written by the then-candidate for Illinois state Senate, Windy City Times newspaper stands by the reporting on Obama's early support of gay marriage in at least two gay surveys.

The surveys were from a 1996 response to Outlines newspaper (which now owns Windy City Times) and IMPACT, a now-defunct gay political action committee. ... This is the first time a claim has been made that Obama did not complete the surveys himself, even though his signature is on the typed one sent to Outlines, and the IMPACT survey appears to be completed in his own writing.

Since being busted, the White House has decided to throw Pfeiffer under the Netroot Nation angry Democrat bus and claim "Dan was not familiar with the history of the questionnaire that was brought up today, but the President's views are clear......"

There was more but they never addressed the questionnaire, they simply reiterated their talking points about what the Obama White House has done over the last two plus years.

I will repeat what I said yesterday about all the other angry Democrats and liberal spewing their irritation about Obama at the bitchfest:

Obama is probably kicked back, feet on his desk, laughing his butt off and telling his advisers "Please, who do you think they are going to vote for in 2012? A REPUBLICAN???? Dude, I own their asses."

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Obama Admin Appeals Defense of Marriage Act Ruling

Obama seems hell bent on ticking of progressive liberals right before the midterm elections.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro ruled that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which barred gay marriages, was in violation of the U.S. Constitution's 10th Amendment, which protects states' rights, and the clause granting equal protection under the law.

Gay activists hailed the ruling as a big win, which is was for them.

Today, Reuters reports that the Obama administration is appealing that decision.:

The Obama administration decided on Tuesday to appeal a judge's rulings that prevented the U.S. government from banning same-sex marriages, a move that could undermine support among President Barack Obama's traditional liberal base ahead of a key election.

The Obama administration filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in support of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, that barred gay marriages, even though Obama had previously opposed the law.

Although Obama opposes the law, a Justice Department spokeswoman said that the administration was defending the statute because it was obligated to defend federal laws when challenged in court.

Convoluted thinking on Obama's part and definitely not the way to "motivate the base" that is already lagging in enthusiasm.

"As a policy matter, the President has made clear that he believes DOMA is discriminatory and should be repealed," said Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler. "The Justice Department is defending the statute, as it traditionally does when acts of Congress are challenged."

So, Obama is against the law, but is determined that Congress be the ones to change it and will fight the courts to make sure they don't step on congressional toes.

Oh yeah, this is going to go over well.

Not.

No way.

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