A Stitch in Haste

The two most heart-breaking, and infuriating, judicial defeats regarding same-sex marriage were unarguably the high court losses in New York (Hernandez v. Robles) and Washington State (Andersen v. King County).

Now, twice in as many days, we have (sorta kinda) positive partial developments from each.

In New York, Governor Eliot Spitzer is fulfilling a campaign promise to introduce a same-sex marriage bill in the Legislature. I am no fan of Spitzer, but I will tip my hat to him for following through on his pledge.

Having said that, the bill is of course already dead.

As a reminder, New York — the worst-governed state in America — is essentially a triumvirate. Policy and power do not flow up from individual state legislators to their leaders; it flows down, via pork, perks and privileges. There is no such thing as an independent vote in Albany. Members of the Democratic majority in the Assembly vote exactly the way Speaker Sheldon Silver instructs them to, while Republican state senators unquestioningly obey Majority Leader Joe Bruno. The legislative agenda itself, meanwhile, is directly (and exclusively) negotiated by Silver and Bruno, along with the governor. Rank-and-file legislators have no say in the matter. Nothing, absolutely nothing, comes to a vote in Albany unless all three super-politicians want it to.

And Bruno is on the record as being opposed to same-sex marriage. So even if there were enough hypothetical votes in the Republican-controlled State Senate to pass gay marriage, the vote itself will simply never occur — because Bruno doesn't want it to. So in that sense the bill has already been defeated.

The only way around this would be for Silver and Spitzer to "buy" a vote authorization from Bruno via backing down on some other contentious issue (i.e., throwing Bruno a bone of some kind). The problem is that no such issue comes to mind. Spitzer simply has no card to play in his dealings with Bruno.

Of course, it's always conceivable, in a "West Wing" style dramatic sort of way, that a vote could come. Conceivable, but unlikely.

In Washington State, meanwhile:

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire signed into law Saturday a measure to create domestic partnerships, giving gay and lesbian couples some of the same rights that come with marriage.

The law creates a domestic partnership registry and provides enhanced rights for same-sex couples, including hospital visitation rights, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations and inheritance rights when there is no will.

Okay, well, that's nice — I guess. Certainly better than nothing. I do find it somewhat ironic, however, that gay couples will now get more recognition in Washington at the end of their relationships than at the beginning. But, no pun intended, it's a start.

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Just as an aside:

The Vatican's second-highest ranking doctrinal official on Monday forcefully branded homosexual marriage an evil[.]
...
The attack by Archbishop Angelo Amato, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was the latest in a string of speeches made by either Pope Benedict or other Vatican officials as Italy considers giving more rights to gays.

Unrepentant anti-gay bigotry by the Catholic Church is one among several reasons why New York State is dragging its political feet on gay marriage.

(Note: The "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" is, incidentally, the successor entity to the Inquisition.)