NEW YORK — Many obstacles still lie ahead for supporters of same-sex marriage, and eventually they will need Congress or the Supreme Court to embrace their goal. For the moment, though, they are jubilantly channeling the lyrics of “New York, New York.”
“Now that we’ve made it here, we’ll make it everywhere,” said prominent activist Evan Wolfson, who took up the cause of marriage equality as a law student three decades ago.
With a vote by its Legislature late Friday, New York became the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage. Massachusetts led the way, after a 2003 court order.
With the new law, which takes effect after 30 days, the number of Americans in same-sex marriage states more than doubles. New York’s population of 19 million surpasses the combined total of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Iowa, plus the District of Columbia.
The outcome, after intensive lobbying by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, will have wide repercussions.
Activists hope the New York vote will help convince judges and politicians across the country, including a hesitant President Barack Obama, that support of same-sex marriage is now a mainstream viewpoint and a winning political stance.
Wolfson, president of the group Freedom to Marry, said the goal is attainable by 2020, or sooner, “if we do the work and keep making the case.”
The work, as envisioned by leading activists, is a three-pronged strategy unfolding at the state level, in dealings with Congress and the Obama administration, and in the courts, where several challenges to the federal ban on same-sex marriage are pending.
“This will be a big boost to our efforts nationally,” said Richard Socarides, a former Clinton White House adviser on gay rights. “It will help in the pending court cases to show that more states are adopting same-sex marriage, and it will help in the court of public opinion.”
The New York bill cleared the Republican-controlled Senate by a 33-29 margin, thanks to crucial support from four GOP senators who joined all but one Democrat in voting yes.
The Senate vote marked the first time a Republican-controlled legislative chamber has supported same-sex marriage, and several top Republican donors contributed to the lobbying campaign on behalf of the bill.
For those engaged in the marriage debate nationally, recent months have been a political roller coaster.
Bills to legalize same-sex marriage failed in Maryland and Rhode Island despite gay-rights activists’ high hopes. And this past April in Colorado, a Senate bill that would have conferred a variety of rights to those engaged in a civil union was killed in a committee vote.
However, Illinois, Hawaii and Delaware approved civil unions, joining five other states — California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington — that provide same-sex couples with extensive marriage-like rights.
For now, same-sex couples cannot get married in 44 states, and 30 of them have taken the step of passing constitutional amendments banning gay marriage. Minnesota’s Republican-controlled Legislature has placed such an amendment on the 2012 ballot.
Brian Brown, president of the conservative National Organization for Marriage, vowed to seek defeat of the New York Republicans who helped the marriage bill pass.
He also predicted victory for the amendment to ban same-sex marriage next year in Minnesota and said this would belie the claims that the same-sex marriage campaign would inevitably prevail nationwide.
“We’ve won every free, fair vote of the people,” Brown said Saturday. “Backroom deals in Albany are not an indication of what people in this country think about marriage.”
Looking long term, same-sex marriage advocates see nationwide victory coming in one of two ways — either congressional legislation or a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that would require all states to recognize same-sex marriages.
“The way you do that is creating a critical mass of states and a critical mass of public opinion — some combination that will encourage Congress and the Supreme Court,” Wolfson said. “By winning New York, we add tremendous energy to the national conversation that grows the majority.”
