Queens United, Almost, for Marriage Equality

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http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/06/08/Queens_United_Almost_for_Marriage_Equality/

A substantial contingent of elected officials, labor leaders, and other advocates hosted a press conference Wednesday to show support for marriage equality in Queens, N.Y., a borough represented by two undecided state senators key to passage of the legislation.


The event, which brought together federal, state, and local leaders, signaled the start of the final, intensified push for marriage equality as the New York legislature prepares to adjourn June 20. With just six calendar days remaining in the session, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the coalition of LGBT advocacy groups, New Yorkers United for Marriage, and others are working to secure the votes of at least six undecided lawmakers in the senate, where the bill failed in a 24 to 38 vote in 2009.

Two of those senators, Shirley Huntley and Joseph Addabbo, both Democrats who voted no in 2009 but now take an undeclared position, were the unnamed but intended audience for many of the more than 20 speakers at Queens Borough Hall on a sweltering early afternoon in New York City.

“It’s about time that we get back on track, back on being, if not first, maybe being the strongest in terms of our advocacy for equal justice under the law,” said Congressman Joseph Crowley. “That’s what this is about. Equal justice under the law.”