Vanessa Williams is the latest
celebrity to join the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) New
Yorkers for Marriage Equality campaign.
“I'm Vanessa Williams, a native New
Yorker, and I support marriage equality,” Williams says in her
30-second video ad released on Tuesday.
“Already five states plus Washington
D.C. have marriage equality. It's time for New York to lead again.
Please join us,” she adds. (The video is embedded in the right
panel of this page.)
The 48-year-old entertainer gained fame
in 1983 when she became the first woman of African-American descent
to be crowned Miss America. She went on to become a Grammy-award
winning recording artist. From 2006 to 2010 she played Wilhelmina
Slater on the ABC comedy series Ugly Betty.
Williams is among the growing list of
celebrities, professional athletes and prominent politicians to
record a video for the campaign that began last year.
Gay marriage supporters are hoping to
make New York the sixth state to legalize the institution. A
Gannett survey of where senators stand on the issue showed eight
remain undecided, including 5 Republicans, giving advocates hope
that the bill might narrowly pass the Senate, where it was defeated
in 2009.