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A Fierce Advocate!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 04:17 AM

tags: A Fierce Advocate, equality, Governor Paterson, New York

With crushing state deficits, low approval ratings, and a cold shoulder from Obama--it’s not easy being David Paterson. But in an exclusive interview with the Advocate, New York’s governor explains why he remains an undeterred champion of LGBT rights. “When I was a young person watching the civil rights demonstrations in Alabama and Georgia and Mississippi, I was always struck by the people who didn’t have to be there—the members of the clergy, the union leaders, and private citizens, who were white or Hispanic. And particularly, the whites were not targets of discrimination, but they were people who saw how it wasn’t just an issue of what was happening to black people in the South, it was what was happening to our country. And so I wanted to be someone who not only was an advocate for change within their own community but could leave that sort of bonded field and see the world in its entirety.” Paterson said.

Governor Paterson’s has a proud history of advocacy on behalf of the LGBT community that spans decades. As a young man in the 1970’s he protested Anita Bryant’s anti-gay campaign (at the time, not a very popular thing to protest in the white community, let alone the African-American community). As a state senator he helped stall the passage of a hate-crimes bill, from 1987 to 2000, until it included protections for gays and lesbians. On his first day as minority leader of the state senate Democrats in 2002, New York’s Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act was passed into law. As a lieutenant governor, he worked the state assembly floor for votes in what became a decisive victory for New York’s first gay marriage bill in 2007. While many questioned whether Paterson had the moxie to make good on his pledge to put marriage equality on the agenda during a special session of the senate, especially given the top order of business – New York’s multibillion-dollar deficit. But even though the governor cannot force lawmakers to vote, he has set and scheduled the special session of the state senate for today and marriage equality is on the agenda.

Asked if there was something he would like to say directly to the gay community, Governor Paterson replied, “I think as I’ve observed in the LGBT community, as I’ve observed in the African-American community, in the disabled community—both of which I’m a part of—there’s also a reaction, a reaction of perhaps not always feeling accepted even when one should be accepted. And I am hoping when marriage equality passes, that this will be the ultimate symbolic gesture that this society, at least here in New York State, accepts the men and the women who live in this society. But what will come after that will also have to be a culture change and an acceptance of victory. Dr. Martin Luther King once said, 'Claim your victories.' And I’m hoping that people not only benefit from the legislation with their rights now that are brand-new that should be exercised as soon as possible but also with an enhanced spirit of recognizing that we too belong.”