Jun 12, 2009  |  By: Lou Chibbaro Jr.  | COMMENTS     

Hopeful gay activists are pointing to signs that the New York Senate’s newly installed Republican majority leader would allow a same-sex marriage bill to come up for a vote this month following a sudden shift in chamber control.

In what political pundits are calling a coup, two conservative-leaning Democrats on Monday joined 30 Republicans in a vote to restore Republicans to power in the New York Senate. Republicans had controlled the chamber for more than 40 years until Democrats gained a fragile, two-seat majority in the 2008 election.

Democratic leaders immediately questioned the validity of the parliamentary moves taken by the Republicans to elect themselves as leaders of the chamber and hinted they may challenge the action in court.

But the New York Times reported that more conservative-leaning Democrats were considering defecting to the GOP side and Republicans would likely retain control of the Senate at least until the 2010 elections.

For years, the GOP-controlled Senate had bottled up LGBT rights related bills, including a same-sex marriage bill that the Democratic-controlled Assembly passed by a comfortable margin in 2007. The Assembly passed the same-sex marriage bill again last month, 89 to 52.

Marriage equality advocates had acknowledged they faced an uphill fight to secure passage of the marriage bill in the Senate, even with Democrats in control. Several Democratic senators expressed opposition to the bill and not one of the Senate’s 30 Republicans had said they would vote for the measure.

Even so, same-sex marriage advocates earlier this year joined gay State Sen. Thomas Duane and gay State Assembly member Daniel O’Donnell, both Democrats from Manhattan, in predicting they had a reasonable shot at lining up the 32 Senate votes needed to pass the bill.

Last month, Duane raised eyebrows in Albany by declaring, “I have the votes” to pass the same-sex marriage measure. Duane, the lead sponsor of the bill in the Senate, declined to identify the senators he claimed had agreed to vote for the bill, saying only that his list included some Republicans.

With that as a backdrop, the abrupt GOP takeover of the Senate on Monday raised questions about whether Republican and Democratic same-sex marriage opponents would join forces to prevent the marriage bill from reaching the floor for a vote before the Senate’s scheduled adjournment for the year in less than two weeks.

O’Donnell told the Blade on Tuesday that Republican state Sen. Dean Skelos, who appeared to have returned to his post as Senate majority leader, had recently said that he would allow his fellow GOP senators to vote their conscience on the marriage bill and would not penalize them for supporting the measure.

“So I would hope that he would put the bill on the floor and let his and all the other members of the Senate vote their conscience on whether or not I have the right to get married,” O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell also noted that one of the two renegade Democratic senators who joined Republicans to help orchestrate the GOP takeover Monday — Pedro Espado Jr. of the Bronx — is a co-sponsor of the same-sex marriage bill.

“He was on a radio program this morning and said he thought the bill was going to come to a vote,” said O’Donnell.

Almost immediately after their November victory, Senate Democrats faced internal opposition from at least three conservative-leaning members of their party. The renegade Democrats threatened to join Republicans and prevent the Democratic senators from winning election from their Senate colleagues to the Senate majority leader and Senate president positions that would enable the Democrats to control the chamber.

Among other issues, two of the three renegade Democrats — Ruben Diaz Sr. of the Bronx and Carl Kruger of Brooklyn — demanded that Democratic Sen. Malcolm Smith of Queens promise not to bring up a same-sex marriage bill for a vote on the Senate floor in exchange for their vote to elect him Senate majority leader.

If Diaz and Kruger, along with Espada, had voted with Republicans in the selection of a majority leader and president of the Senate in January, Democrats would not have gained control of the body. After more than two months of behind-the-scenes negotiations between Smith and the rebelling Democrats, a deal was struck in January and the three decided at that time to remain loyal to their party.

Rumors surfaced that Smith might have made a secret promise not to bring up the marriage bill for a vote as part of his deal with Diaz and Kruger, who are strong opponents of same-sex marriage. Smith has denied he made such a deal. But ...