Gay groups looking to legalize gay
marriage in New York cheered the Democratic primary loss on Tuesday
of state Senator Bill Stachowski.
Gay marriage proponents took on the
task of ousting senators who voted last year against a bill that
would have legalized gay marriage in the state. Passage of the bill
in the Senate remained its final hurdle to becoming law.
Among the targets were Stachowski of
Buffalo, Shirley L. Huntley of Queens and Ruben Diaz Sr. of the
Bronx.
Primary voters overwhelmingly picked
Tim Kennedy, a pro-gay marriage candidate, over incumbent Stachowski.
“Tonight voters sent a clear message
to lawmakers everywhere that taking a stand for equality is the right
thing to do,” Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign
(HRC), the nation's largest gay advocate, said in a statement.
The group Fight
Back New York had attracted major Hollywood talent, including Sex
and The City 2 star Cynthia Nixon and Jesse
Tyler Ferguson, star of ABC's Modern Family, to its
campaign against the anti-gay senators.
Stachowski is the second win for the
group, which first called for the removal of Hiram Monserrate in a
special election held in March.
“Starting tomorrow, we shift our
focus to the November [election], and anti-equality incumbents are
paying very close attention to where we focus our energies next,”
group said on its website.
The group will most likely continue to
pursue Huntley and Diaz, both of whom advanced to the general
election. But which of the other 34 senators who voted against the
measure they'll set their sights on remains to be seen.
This week, HRC
launched a new campaign starring, among others, Kenneth Cole and
Julianne Moore urging New Yorkers to support passage of a gay
marriage law.