NY Gov. Mario Cuomo Releases Video Supporting Same-Sex Marriage





ALBANY — By THOMAS KAPLAN
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is releasing a video message on Monday in which he urges New Yorkers to join him in advocating for the legalization ofsame-sex marriage, administration officials said.
The video signifies the latest push in a high-profile campaign by the governor and gay rights groups to win approval of legislation allowing gay couples to wed before the State Legislature finishes its legislative session in four weeks.
Mr. Cuomo last week personally lobbied members of the State Senate in favor of same-sex marriage, and his new video, which was obtained by The New York Times, urges voters to contact their legislators, too.
“This is a matter of fairness and equality,” Mr. Cuomo said. “It is not a question of religion or culture, but a question of legal rights and government policy.”
He added, “When it comes to fighting for what’s right, New Yorkers wrote the book, and marriage equality is the next chapter of our civil rights story.”
Gay rights advocates see Mr. Cuomo, who is highly popular with voters, as their biggest political asset in trying to legalize same-sex marriage this year, and they are counting on him to lead the way in winning over members of the State Senate who are undecided about the issue.
But they face an ever-more-imposing deadline in pushing their cause: June 20, the date lawmakers are scheduled to leave Albany.
Right now, at least, Mr. Cuomo and advocates do not have the votes they need. No Republicans in the State Senate supported same-sex marriage when the legislation was defeated in the Senate two years ago. And despite the lobbying by Mr. Cuomo, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and others, no Senate Republicans have so far announced their support for same-sex marriage this year, either.
Opponents have also stepped up their campaigning in recent days, with one group, the National Organization for Marriage, pledging to commit $1 million to the state’s legislative races next year.
Mr. Cuomo, for his part, recently recorded an automated phone call in which he asks New Yorkers to call their lawmakers and urge them to support legalizing same-sex marriage. He has also pressed the issue in a series of speeches about his legislative agenda that he has delivered across the state the past two weeks.
Mr. Cuomo’s video, which runs about 90 seconds, largely follows the message he has laid out in those speeches — that, in his view, allowing same-sex marriages is a matter of equality under the law.
“From the fight for women’s suffrage to the struggle for civil rights, New Yorkers have been on the right side of history,” he said in the video. “Indeed, New Yorkers have made history. But on the issue of marriage equality, New York has fallen behind.”
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