The Governor of New York, who is leading the campaign for marriage equality in his state, wants the legislation passed by June 20:
Cuomo demanded the Legislature pass the major pillars of his agenda: legalization of same-sex marriage, ethics reform and a property tax cap.Okay. Liking that tough talk.
"June 20 is the day that the Legislature ends, and June 20 is D-Day for us," Cuomo said. "Tell your legislators it's very simple: Pass the bills or don't come home. Period."
Yesterday, via email, we learned that Assemblyman Danny O'Donnell introduced a marriage bill in the Assembly:
Assembly Member Daniel O'Donnell introduced A7600, the Marriage Equality Act. As the member of the New York State Assembly who successfully shepherded the Marriage Equality Act to passage in that house three times since 2007, Assembly Member Daniel O'Donnell plans to push for its passage in the Assembly a fourth time.Danny also made the announcement via Twitter.
NOM is on the air with anti-marriage ads in New York. The group is going to throw everything it has to stop this legislation. Because, they know, like we know, that the trendline is moving in our direction. Good As You's Jeremy Hooper reports that this ad is the same NOM ad from 2009. And, it's filled with lies.
Alvin McEwen dissected the NOM ad on a couple fronts. First, it's using the same old tired misinformation:
The commercial claims of "dire consequences" if same-sex marriage is approved in New York.Notice that Maggie Gallagher didn't testify in the Prop. 8 trial. Her group can -- and does -- lie on TV. But, in court, that's a crime.
However, one of those "dire consequences" was proven to be a lie. Starting at .07 is the following claim:Massachusetts schools teach second graders that boys can marry other boys.That claim is an alteration of an original claim NOM made that kindergartners were "being taught about gay marriage in Massachusetts."
In February of this year, the Pulitzer Prize winning site PolitiFact called out the National Organization for Marriage for pushing that misleading statement.
And, Alvin also noted the widely reported news that even a NOM ally from Maine, Marc Mutty, acknowledged that the message is not true:
Marc Mutty, chairman of Yes on 1, said the following about the usage of hyperbole about school curriculum in an upcoming documentary on the vote:The next six weeks are going to be crucial. NOM knows it. Andrew Cuomo knows it. This is an all-hands on deck moment. The best thing everyone can do is focus on winning in Albany -- not worrying about getting credit or assigning blame. There's already some of that credit hogging underway. We saw that happen in California during Prop. 8. So knock it off. How about we win first this time. There will be plenty of credit to go around.
Transcript [via Bill Nemitz from the Portland Press Herald]:We use a lot of hyperbole and I think that's always dangerous," says Mutty during a Yes on 1 strategy session, at the time on leave from his job as public affairs director for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Maine.Later, Mutty tried to recant his statement, but he danced around what he originally said about hyperbole.
"You know, we say things like 'Teachers will be forced to (teach same-sex marriage in schools)!' " he continues. "Well, that's not a completely accurate statement and we all know it isn't, you know?"
"No," interjects a woman off-camera. "We don't say that."
"Let's look back at our ads and see what we say," Mutty persists. "And I think we use hyperbole to the point where, you know, it's like 'Geez!'"
