Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Where Good Governors Are Heading

In Vermont, the lawmakers speaking for same-sex marriage revealed compassion and reason in equal measure. In New York on Thursday morning at 10, Gov. David Paterson will announce the reincarnation of a two-year-old SSM bill. His great comments on this nervy move likely reflects the trend toward marriage equality nationwide.

He noted that homosexual couples in civil unions may lack up to 1,350 civil protections. That includes pension and health-care benefits.

There is no guarantee that the conflicted, yet Democratic dominated legislature will act on the bill in weeks or months or even this year.

Paterson put the issues to them as plainly as the Vermont lawmakers did when he said:
The timing was always right. It's just who is willing to take that step, and I am.I think it is, as other states are showing, the only ethical way to treat people who want to live together in peace under the civil law. So my general feeling about all these issues is the right ethical decision will inevitably be the right political decision.

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1 comment:

Quriltai said...

Good governors? I'd wager dollars to donuts that Paterson sees this as a Hail Mary for his evaporating stewardship of the state. Granted, it's a glorious expansion of civil rights, but if Paterson were anything save a disaster as a governor, this likely wouldn't be happening....