[Fredslist] Proud To Be a New Yorker

[Tessa Marquis]

Bravo! 

It is a great victory for Equality.

We have the same story here since 2008: 
Wake up every morning Proud to be a Connecticuter.Connecticutian.Nutmegger.

 

 

Tessa Marquis
Gotham New Haven
New Standard Institute, Inc. 
84 Broad Street  |  Milford, CT 06460  |  USA
203.783.1582 x101 
 <mailto:tmarquis at newstandardinstitute.com>
tmarquis at newstandardinstitute.com 

 

 

 

From: fredslist-bounces at gothamnetworking.com
[mailto:fredslist-bounces at gothamnetworking.com] On Behalf Of Christopher
Lamal
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2011 6:29 AM
To: 'Freds List'
Subject: [Fredslist] Proud To Be a New Yorker

 

Purely by circumstance, I happened to watch the NY State Senate vote on
marriage equality on TV Friday night.  I am surprised about how emotional I
got.  I have no thought or desire of ever marrying, but I found myself
crying when the Republican-controlled NY Senate approved the bill.

 

I grew up in the land of Hiawatha, in the northwoods of Wisconsin right on
the shores of Lake Superior.  Until recently, I was proud to tell people I
was from Wisconsin, a state known for its progressive politics (where the
Republican Party was founded in the time of Lincoln, the home of the
progressive Bull Moose Party and US Senator "Fighting Bob" LaFollette, the
first state to elect an openly gay woman to the US Congress and the first
state to allow state employees to engage in collective bargaining, etc.).
Wisconsin also had the reputation and record of clean, uncorrupted
government. 

 

In light of what's happened in Wisconsin in just the past year, however, I
just don't feel that much pride anymore.  The legislature in Wisconsin voted
to repeal almost all collective bargaining rights for state employees, and
political campaigns in the state have now become infected by huge corporate
"donations".

 

Against that background, I'll just observe that each of us wants to take
some pride in where we have come from or where we have established new
roots. 

 

And so I gotta tell 'ya, I feel so proud to be a New Yorker right now.  And
so appreciative of those NY Republican State Senators in a
Republican-controlled State Senate who voted in favor of the Marriage
Equality Act.  The statements they made in explaining their difficult votes
and why they had changed positions since 2009 were touching.

 

In several hours the NYC Gay Pride March is set to begin. I live on 15th
Street, less than half a block away from the parade route down 5th Avenue.
I've marched and watched enough of them over the past 30 years that it
normally would not have much interest for me except as a stroll-by while
walking my dog Jericho (who is mostly bored by the march but gets very
excited by the horses-at whom he barks and wants to chase). 

 

Today, however, is going to be especially memorable as Gov. Andrew Cuomo,
who pushed and strategized this legislative achievement all the way through
to success, marches this year.  This was clearly an issue about which he
felt deeply and in which he used an enormous amount of his personal
political capital.  They say that normally around 1.5 million people either
march in or are spectators at the parade.  Today, some authorities are
expecting perhaps 2 or 2.5 million people.  Jericho and I will be in the
crowd, so as to cheer Gov. Cuomo, Mayor Mike Bloomberg and those other
politicians who helped make this historic event happen.

 

A very proud New Yorker,

 

Chris Lamal

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.gothamnetworking.com/pipermail/fredslist/attachments/20110626/7d3944c5/attachment.html