Senate GOP still quiet on gay marriage

ALBANY -- As Republicans debated gay marriage behind closed doors Monday, demonstrators on either side of the issue jammed the hallways of the state Senate, singing gospel songs, shouting lectures and Bible passages, waving signs and demanding lawmakers take a stand.

But that was not to be Monday.

Some officials are saying action on the major issues at the close of the legislative session -- including rent control, a property-tax cap and tuition at the State University of New York -- might not occur before Wednesday. Technically, Monday was to be the last day of the session.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has made a bill to legalize same-sex marriage a key priority, and the Democrat-controlled Assembly passed it last week. In the Republican-led Senate, 31 of 62 members have announced their support, but Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) has yet to bring it to a floor vote.

Republicans came to no consensus Monday and a meeting of Cuomo, Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) produced no breakthroughs. Some lawmakers have said the rent control/tax cap issue must be resolved first. Rent laws were set to expire at midnight Monday; lawmakers were expected to pass another temporary extension, the second since negotiations stalled last week.

In fact, lawmakers for the first time expressed frustration about the stalemate.

"I can't say we're close to anything," Skelos said after the 15-minute meeting with Cuomo and Silver.

Silver said Skelos was inflexible on the idea of expanding rent control. Asked when frustration would set in, Silver replied: "I think it's set in already."

Most of the action occurred outside the lawmakers' chambers, where gay marriage adversaries flooded the normally quiet hallways, narrowing the L-shaped corridors and triggering the arrival of about a dozen state troopers.

Opponents sported buttons reading "Mayday for Marriage," sang "Victory is Mine" and chanted "One man, one woman!" Supporters of gay marriage countered with "God Bless America," T-shirts that read "I Do" support "marriage equality" and signs that said "People of faith support love."

As Greg Ball (R-Putnam), a Republican and potential swing vote, walked past opponents, one man yelled: "I'm praying for you, Greg!" In another corner, an opponent told a proponent that "Sin is not civil rights issue."

"People have a choice, but we don't think it's a godly choice," said Debbie Crecca, 57, a preschool teacher in the Albany area who grew up in Massapequa Park. "We love the people, but we still don't love the sin."

"I'm standing up for what is true and what is right," said former New York Giants receiver David Tyree. "I believe the definition of marriage should not be changed."

Rebecca Cain, 26, an Albany-based Website designer, carried a sign reading: "Equality for Marriage."

"I got engaged to my boyfriend on Jan. 1, but we're not going to get married until all our friends can get married," she said. "It's a civil rights issue, the government saying that it's OK for straight people to be married but not gay people [categorizes] them as lower class."