In an interview with Gay City News, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg discusses the mayoral race, his opponent NYC comptroller Bill Thompson, and expresses confidence that he can sway key GOP Senators (specifically Brooklyn's Martin Golden and Queens' Frank Padavan) to make a 'yes' vote when marriage equality comes to the floor in the legislature. He also says that's not likely to happen this year:
And perhaps the mayor doesn't have to worry about [working the Senators] either, at least between now and the November election.
“I
don't know how to get it to come up,” he said, explaining his view that
having the issue move to the Senate floor may prove more difficult than
rounding up the votes. “If you want my honest opinion,” Bloomberg
continued, the Senate leadership is unlikely to move a gay marriage
bill “when I don't see these guys willing to stand up for less
controversial issues.”
Despite the fact that the number of
states with legal gay marriage quickly shot up to six this past spring,
the mayor said, “I ‘m scared to death that the country is going in the
wrong direction… I think on other LGBT issues they are clearly moving
in the direction that I think they should go and you probably do too.
It's the marriage thing that I don't see.”
Even in New York,
where Paterson and his predecessor Eliot Spitzer have been outspoken in
supporting gay marriage, Bloomberg argued, “Whether anybody who runs
for governor next year will stand up for gay marriage, I'll bet you 25
cents no.”
Though the Democrats did finally achieve a majority
in the State Senate last November, the mayor who vows to deliver
Republican votes views the composition of the Democratic caucus as a
bar to action.
“There are a lot of traditional Democratic
communities that are very conservative,” he said. “The black community
is very conservative. The Latino. You know, I don't win any points with
these communities when I go in their churches and point out I'm very
pro-choice. I'm very pro-gay rights. I'm anti-gun. I'm very
pro-immigration. I believe in Darwin.”
More at Gay City News…
Previously…
Mayor, Interrupted [tr]
