NY: Poll shows record high support for marriage equality

Via LGBTQ Nation: A new poll indicates support for marriage equality in New York has reached 58 percent, the highest in the state’s history.

The poll, released Monday by the Siena Research Institute at Siena College, also revealed a “record low” of 36 percent of New Yorkers opposed the marriage equality. Six percent had no opinion.

Among Democrats and Independents, support was over 60 percent; among Republicans, 48 percent were opposed, although support registered at 45 percent.

“The more New Yorkers learn about marriage equality, the more they support this basic issue of fairness,” said Brian Ellner, the Human Rights Campaign’s senior strategist for the Campaign for New York Marriage.

“We will continue our campaign to educate across the state so that everyone has the right to make a commitment and build a family with the person they love,” Ellner said.

Ross D. Levi, Executive Director at the Empire State Pride Agenda, released this statement: “State legislators who have not supported marriage equality in the past should take note that New Yorkers — including nearly two thirds of suburban voters and a majority of upstate and Catholic voters — clearly believe in fairness and equality for their LGBT family, friends, neighbors and colleagues.”

Former NYC Mayors join "New Yorkers for Marriage Equality"

 

Former New York City Mayors David Dinkins and Ed Koch have join the "New Yorkers for Marriage Equality" campaign by appearing in videos supporting these important civil rights. I'd like to point out that former Mayor Rudy Guiliani, who has several gay friends, has yet to join the campaign.

From a news release: Two recent New York polls show a strong majority of New Yorkers support marriage equality. A Siena Research Institute Poll found 57 percent of New Yorkers support marriage for same-sex couples and another recent poll by Quinnipiac University had support at 56 percent.

The New Yorkers for Marriage Equality campaign is centered on video testimonials from New Yorkers who support the right of same-sex couples to marry. To date, HRC has released videos from Former Mayors Ed Koch and David Dinkins, Ethan and Ryan Hawke, Russell Simmons, Mark and Sunrise Ruffalo, John Slattery, Joan Rivers, Barbara Bush, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Whoopi Goldberg, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon, Fran Drescher, Moby, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Julianne Moore and Kenneth Cole.

In addition to rising acceptance in New York state, a Washington Post/ABC poll today found 53% of Americans support marriage equality. That's the first time to show majority acceptance in the 7 years of the poll.

NY: 2 anti-gay State Senators under investigation

In the past week the NY Post has reported separately on two New York state senators who are under investigations for corruption.

State Sen. Carl Kruger, according to the New York Post, traded political favors for more than $1 million in bribes over the last five years -- which his live-in boyfriend helped launder.

Kruger and his secret longtime companion, Manhattan gynecologist Michael Turano, were among eight men arrested in a sweeping government "pay-to-play" corruption scandal.
The charges include allegations that Kruger received bribes and other largesse to help two competing health-care companies buy hospitals, and direct state funds to those firms.

Kruger's constant companion, Turano, is accused of using bribe money he deposited in two shell companies for Kruger to pay the lease on a Bentley luxury sedan, credit-card bills and the mortgage on the garish, multimillion-dollar Mill Basin home where the two men for years have shacked up with Turano's mom and brother, authorities and neighbors said.

Separately, the state Attorney General's Office is investigating state Sen. Shirley Huntley and her ties to nonprofits that have soaked taxpayers for more than $400,000, the NY Post has learned. News of the probe comes a week after The Post revealed the Queens Democrat tried to funnel $155,000 to her Parent Workshop nonprofit and as new questions emerge about the shady group.

Both Senators Kruger and Huntley were among the turncoat "group of 8" Democrats who helped kill the marriage equality bill in NY state legislation in 2009.