The NYT explores how New York governor David Paterson's perspective on gay rights came to be:
“…Mr. Paterson said he believes deeply that gay men and lesbians today face the same kind of civil rights battle that black Americans faced. He acknowledged that this position put him at odds with some black leaders, who bristle at such comparisons. ‘In many respects, people in our society, we only recognize our own struggles,' Mr. Paterson said. ‘I've wanted to be someone in the African-American community who recognizes the new civil rights struggle that is being undertaken by gay and lesbian and transgendered people.'”
However, that perspective seems to have been formed at a very young age:
“Uncle Stanley and Uncle Ronald, he said, were a gay couple, though in the 1960s few people described them that way. They helped young David with his spelling, and read to him and played cards with him. ‘Apparently, my parents never thought we were in any danger,' the governor recalled on Thursday in an interview. ‘I was raised in a culture that understood the different ways that people conduct their lives. And I feel very proud of it.' … ‘All the time when I'd hear Uncle Stanley and Uncle Ronald and my parents talk, they were talking about the civil rights struggle,' Mr. Paterson said. ‘In those days, I knew I wanted to grow up and feel that I could change something.'”
Exposure, once again, a force. Another example of why coming out and living openly is so important.
Meanwhile, NY state senate majority leader Joe Bruno weighs his options…
I've posted Paterson's press conference on the same-sex directive once again,
AFTER THE JUMP…
