Actors Ethan Hawke, Lucy Liu and Whoopi
Goldberg are among the celebrities featured in the final Human
Rights Campaign's (HRC) New Yorkers for Marriage Equality
campaign.
“Everyone should have the right to
marry the person they love,” says hip-hop mogul and gay rights ally
Russell Simmons in the one-minute-thirty-nine-second video released
Tuesday.
“Fair is fair,” comedian Joan
Rivers says.
“I treat everyone the way I expect to
be treated and that includes marriage,” says New York Rangers
winger Sean Avery, the first professional athlete to join the
campaign. Avery was later joined by Phoenix
Suns point guard Steve Nash and former New York Giants defensive end
Michael Strahan.
“Come on, I'm a New Yorker, you're a
New Yorker, I support marriage equality, where are you?” Goldberg
says.
“Because government shouldn't tell
you who to love or who to marry,” says New York Mayor Michael
Bloomberg, one of the many prominent politicians to record a video
for the campaign.
“We are so close to equal marriage
rights in New York,” adds actress Julianne Moore, “but we need
your help. Please join us.” (The video is embedded in the right
panel of this page.)
HRC produced 51 videos for the campaign
that began last year.
Leaders in the New York Senate
continued their foot-dragging on Wednesday, a week after the Assembly
approved Governor Andrew Cuomo's plan to make New York the sixth
state to legalize gay marriage. Passage in the Senate, where the
bill faces its final hurdle, remains one vote shy.