Protesters demonstrate in support of and against gay marriage in Albany on Thursday. Gay Marriage bill hits N.Y. senate floor

New York’s state senate is poised to approve same-sex marriage Friday night, paving the way for the Empire State to become the sixth and by far largest state to allow gays and lesbians to wed.

The senate’s GOP majority leader, Dean Skelos, announced Friday afternoon that he will call a vote on the legislation. It will be “a vote of conscience for every member of the Senate,” he said in a press release.


Late Friday Sen. Stephen Saland, a Republican from Poughkeepsie who was undecided, told the Associated Press he will vote ‘yes’ on the bill, bringing to 32 the number of legislators who have said publicly that they will vote for the legislation, more than half of the legislature.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a first-year Democrat who campaigned on legalizing same-sex marriage, has been negotiating with several moderate Republicans to secure their votes the last two weeks.

“After many hours of deliberation and discussion over the past several weeks among the members, it has been decided that same sex marriage legislation will be brought to the full Senate for an up or down vote,” Skelos said in the press release.

It was not immediately clear what time a vote would take place.

A GOP senator, who declined to speak publicly because of an agreement not to disclose internal party discussions, told POLITICO that senators did not discuss how they would vote during a nearly 10-hour conference meeting Friday. The senator said some members of the conference wanted to send the matter to a statewide referendum, though they lost out to those who wanted to hold a vote tonight, effectively to bring the matter to a close.

The senator said the Republicans who remains publicly undecided — Mark Grisanti of Buffalo — did not reveal how they would vote to the conference.

Advocates on either side of the issue predicted earlier this week that New York’s deliberations would impact the fate of same-sex marriage in other states where legalizing the practice is on the table.

“New York’s a big deal,” said James Esseks,” the director of the ACLU’s LGBT Project. “It more than doubles the population that lives in states with the freedom to marry. … And in terms of cultural relevance to the rest of the country, it’s huge.”

President Barack Obama, at a Thursday fundraising stop in New York City, told a group of 600 gay and lesbian supporters that “gay and lesbian couples deserve the same legal rights as every other couple in this country” but stopped short of endorsing same-sex marriage.

Mike Long, the powerful New York State Conservative Party chairman who was the most vocal opponent of same-sex marriage, told The Weekly Standard Friday afternoon the legislation has enough votes to pass.

“I know they’ve got the 32nd vote, and I think they’ve muscled two more people” to vote for it, he said.

And Maggie Gallagher, the co-founder and chairman of the board of the National Organization for Marriage, called the New York vote “D-Day for marriage” and predicted the state legislature in New Hampshire will soon repeal its 2009 law legalizing gay marriage.

“We’re not going to give up on this fight,” she said.

Esseks predicted New York would lead a procession of states in approving same-sex marriage, though with most state legislatures finished with or nearing the end of their annual sessions, significant movement is not likely until next year.

“There are discussions going on in other legislatures that I think will be affected in a significant way because New York will have marriage,” he said.

Gay marriage is already legal in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C. It was briefly legal in California until voters passed Proposition 8, which is being challenged in federal court, and in Maine, where voters in 2009 overturned legislation signed six months earlier by then-Gov. John Baldacci.

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.

Only on June 13, when three previously opposed Democrats announced they’d changed their position did it appear the bill had any chance to pass this year. Two days later, two of the majority Republicans broke with their caucus to back the bill, bringing the number of senators publicly supporting gay marriage to 31, one short of the necessary 32.

Then, with New York state government in lockdown this week over lawmakers’ failure to approve a local property tax cap and rent regulation bill, the measure stalled while Cuomo negotiated exemptions for religious organizations with four Republicans seen as potential yes votes.

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.

Approving same-sex marriage would a major victory for gay-rights advocates, who conducted a sustained campaign to build public support following the 2009 defeat. Athletes, celebrities and politicians ranging from Bill and Chelsea Clinton to pro hockey player Sean Avery and actress Uma Thurman filmed videos touting their support, and it was a priority for both Cuomo and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Gallagher’s National Organization for Marriage, which opposes allowing same-sex marriage, responded with a phone and mail campaign that featured significantly less celebrity buzz. The group released a video of New York Giants Super Bowl hero David Tyree announcing his opposition to changing the state’s marriage law.

Proponents of same-sex marriage hope and opponents fear that if New York legalizes of the practice, other states will follow.

“New York sets trends and this is a trend, if it happens, that we hope would sweep the country,” said Richard Socarides, a former advisor to President Clinton who is now the president of Equality Matters.