Gay marriage didn't ruin New York

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July 26, 2012

Gay marriage didn't ruin New York

Anonymous Daily Star The Daily Star Sat Sep 22, 2012, 03:34 PM EDT

A curious thing happened on the way to the first anniversary Tuesday of New York state's sanctioning of gay marriage.

That curious thing was nothing. Or at least nothing bad.

The world did not come to an end.

The warning of now-Cardinal and then New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan to President Barack Obama that failure to ban gay marriage could "precipitate a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions" never quite came about.

Heterosexual marriage _ repeatedly claimed to be somehow at risk by its homosexual counterpart _ is as healthy and as shaky as it was before New York's legislation was signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

As it turns out, the state has made quite a tidy profit from gay marriage. In New York City alone, it has had an economic impact of $259 million, according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

At least 8,200 same-sex marriage licenses have been issued in the city, more than 10 percent of the 75,000 in the state since July 24 of last year.

New York state was months ahead of President Obama's statement in support of gay marriage, and for that, we should be proud.

We should be especially proud of the four courageous GOP state senators who resisted threats from members of the Republican and Conservative parties before providing the crucial votes Democrats needed to pass the bill.

"You look over the last few months and say the world has not changed dramatically," GOP state Sen. Jim Alesi told WNYC this week. "It still turns around 24 hours a day, but lives have changed for the better."

We are saddened that local Republican Sens. James Seward and John Bonacic did not share Alesi's convictions and vote for the bill. With the vote looming, a Daily Star editorial urged them to abandon their past opposition to equal opportunity for all people in our society.

"Let's see who is on the right side of history and who is on the wrong side," the editorial said. "Sen. Seward and Sen. Bonacic, history will not forgive you if you're once again on the wrong side."

Alesi chose not to challenge a fellow Republican in a primary this year in a redistricted area.

"I received the usual kind of political threats that, you know, We're gonna kill you politically,' etc, etc," But, he told WNYC, he's 100 percent certain he did the right thing.

"For those people that were against it, I don't see how anything has changed for them," he said. "I can't say the world has gotten worse. I think it should be better for everybody."

Indeed, it is. Happy Anniversary, New York.