“If there’s anybody threatening the sanctity of marriage, it comes from those who have the privilege and the right, and we have abused it for decades.”
- Sen. Diane Savino

This week saw the Civil Partnership Bill finally get some floortime in the Dáil (which was covered by our own click here). However, while TDs were opening the debate on recognition of same-sex couples last Thursday, December 3rd, many New Yorkers were still feeling the sting of the previous day’s hugely disappointing defeat of a bill for marriage equality in the New York state Senate. There are a few reasons why this defeat is particularly disheartening and frustrating:

1. New York state recognises same-sex marriage from other states but does not recognise those performed within its own borders.
2. The bill was defeated by a margin of 14 votes (38 against – 24 for) and one senator in particular (Hiram Monserrat) who voted against the bill had been endorsed during his election by the Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club of Queens.
3. It is difficult to fathom how those who who voted against the measure were not swayed after hearing Democratic Senator for Statten Island, Diane Savino, expound in plain and relatable terms, the reasons why recognition of same-sex marriage is an undeniable duty of the government. Funny, moving, and logically bang-on. Watch it below:
   

This latest disappointment from New York comes just 28 days after the devastating outcome of Maine’s Proposition 1, a Proposition 8-style measure which overturned the state’s existing marriage equality law. But don’t let the triumphant zealots fool you, the campaign for marriage equality is not going to disappear in the wake of these disappointments and will continue to gather momentum. On the same day as Maine vote, voters on the other side of the country in the state of Washington approved Referendum 71, a measure which expands domestic partner protections to grant same-sex couples the same rights and responsibilities afforded to married couples. The outcome of that referendum will be historically noted as a critical and all-too-rare vindication of civil rights by plebiscite vote. Positive confirmation that the US is on-track for recognition of same-sex couples can also be seen in late November’s passage of the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act—a legislative move which provides equal family benefits to federal employees with same-sex partners.

In the near future, Houston, Texas (yes, Texas!) may be electing its first lesbian Mayor. Sitting City Controller, Annise Parker, holds a slight lead in pre-poll percentages in the Mayoral election for Houston which will take place next Saturday, December 12th. Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States and is not the liberal oasis of nearby Austin, which makes Parker’s performance thus far and her possible election all-the-more momentous.