New York Senator Mark Grisanti, one of
four Republicans who voted for a gay marriage bill last week, says
the threats of gay marriage foes don't scare him.
Before he cast his vote that helped New
York become the sixth – and most populous – state to legalize gay
marriage, Grisanti, who previously said he was “inalterably opposed
to gay marriage,” told fellow lawmakers that he couldn't find a
legal reason to oppose marriage equality.
The National Organization for Marriage
(NOM), the nation's most vociferous opponent of gay marriage, this
week announced a 4-year plan to repeal the law, which includes
spending more than $2 million to oust 7 lawmakers.
“Mark Grisanti's vote was an absolute
and total betrayal,” NOM President Brian Brown said. “Mark
Grisanti asked us in his first bid for the Senate in 2008 to support
him. He promised that he would protect marriage as the union between
a man and a woman. He not only betrayed us, he betrayed his voters.
He is at the top of our target list.”
Grisanti, however, dismissed
the saber rattling in remarks made to Your News Now.
“I'm comfortable with my decision and
my vote because I think it was a balance, and whatever NOM wants to
do, as I said, that's what makes this country great. Go ahead and do
what you've got to do,” Grisanti said.
“It was not going to be a political
vote. It was a vote of my conscience and it was a vote basically,
definitely of fairness, and a balance that personified what I stated
on the floor, that same sex couples should have the same right that I
enjoy with my wife that I love,” Grisanti added. “The other side
of it is that the religious organizations, the non-profits and the
benevolent organizations, they're all protected.”
(Related: Mark
Grisanti says previous gay marriage opposition guided by politics.)