Growing push for same-sex marriage in NY

ALBANY -- Lady Gaga onstage at the Nassau Coliseum Saturday, actors Kevin Bacon, Julianne Moore and Kyra Sedgwick on video, and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in Albany are headliners in New York's growing push to legalize gay marriage, a fight that may already be won thanks to shifting voter sentiment and a concerted, disciplined campaign.

New Yorkers opposed to gay marriage are being swamped by younger people who support it, while polls seem to show a new tactic by advocates is working in the suburbs and upstate, the more conservative region where the issue will be won or lost.

Five states -- New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Iowa and Massachusetts -- and the District of Columbia have approved gay marriage laws.

"A win in New York will provide significant momentum for the movement nationally and, quite frankly, internationally," said Brian Ellner of the Human Rights Campaign, working for same-sex marriage.

The organized effort under Cuomo is a turnaround from the surprising 2009 defeat in the State Senate, which fell eight votes short of passage in the 62-seat chamber after strong approval in the Assembly. At the time, advocacy groups operated more independently.

But those votes were just a prologue to today, said Bruce Gyory, a political science professor at the University at Albany who analyzes voter trends.

The debate demonstrated some of the legislature's greatest displays of eloquence -- personal stories of sons and daughters denied the joys and rights of marriage -- and did what is rare in Albany: It changed votes.

Fred and Heidi Perkins, whose gay son wants to be married, held a letter-writing open house at their Plainview home. They said 70 neighbors showed up. "My son getting married isn't really affecting anyone else's marriage," said Heidi Perkins, 50, a market researcher. "It's sad."

A Siena College poll this month found a new high for support for gay marriage: 58 percent. The poll showed voters 55 and older were divided, not strongly opposed, and that the influential independent vote favored same-sex marriage. On April 14, a Quinnipiac University poll found opposition continued to fall toward 30 percent.

"I know there are some polls that show things are changing," Sen. Thomas Libous (R-Binghamton) said. He opposes gay marriage, but emphasized that he's not speaking for the conference.

"I know my constituency, particularly my base, is very much against it," he said. "At the end of the day, if a measure like this comes to the floor, it really is up to each individual member."