Bloomberg Is Said to Want State to Legalize Same-Sex Marriages

[kskiska]

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who has refused in his two years in office to disclose his personal views on gay and lesbian marriage, told 80 journalists at a lesbian and gay fund-raising dinner in Manhattan Thursday night that he favored changing state law to legalize same-sex unions, four people who were there said yesterday.

On a day when the struggle for gay and lesbian marriage rights in New York moved into the courts with the first of many anticipated lawsuits and into the streets with auto caravans and protests on Long Island, the mayor of an upstate community said he would temporarily suspend his performing of same-sex marriages and Gov. George E. Pataki vowed again to uphold the existing marriage law.

But it was Mr. Bloomberg who was caught in the day's spotlight, although reluctantly. The mayor, who has a long record of supporting civil rights for gays but has resisted voicing personal opinions that might alienate his conservative supporters, has been under intense pressure to make his views known as the campaign for gay and lesbian marriage rights has blossomed in New York in recent weeks.

But he had steadfastly resisted the entreaties until Thursday night, and many who heard him speak at a $1,000-a-plate dinner of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association were surprised to hear him say he favored a change in the law.

more…
http://nytimes.com/2004/03/06/nyregion/06GAY.html?hp

[fearnobush]

1. Correct.

Mike does have quite a few gay friends. His company, Bloomberg LP even has domestic partnership health care coverage for it's workers. He Now a Repuke, has been a life long Dem. He switched parties because that was the only way he could get a NYC mayoral nomination.

[slinkerwink]

3. but NYC is mostly made up of Democrats---why switch to Republican

party for the mayoral nomination?

[lcooksey]

2. I'd have thought

that journalists would have taken notes if someone as important as the mayor of New York said something as unexpected as this. The article says, "No tape recordings were rolling, and various auditors were somewhat fuzzy trying to remember his exact words."

That's just :crazy: