Council Speaker Christine Quinn speaks with a small group of reporters Thursday morning
An emotional Christine C. Quinn, the openly gay Speaker of the New York City Council, broke down in tears multiple times as she addressed a small group of reporters at City Hall Thursday morning, saying that she was "angry" with the 38 State Senators who yesterday killed a bill to legalize same sex marriage in New York State
The normally nurturing Quinn at one point apologized to a reporter for offering an angry answer to a question, then qualified the apology, saying, "but I am angry." Later, when a reporter challenged her, asking about a bunch of resolutions on gay rights that had never made it to the floor for a vote, an angry Quinn began crying, replying, "If you want to go ahead and write that I didn't do enough, you can go right ahead and write that. If you want to go ahead and write that I didn't do enough, you can go right ahead and write that.."
The legislature can't even consider the issue again until January of 2011, although a ballot initiative on the matter could appear in November of 2010.
Quinn, who along with a group of LGBT activists had been in Albany all week loobying Senators to vote "yes" on the bill said that the wounds were still too sore to consider next steps in the quest to bring same sex marriage to the Empire State.
"I think that's a conversation for the [gay] community and our allies," said Quinn. "I think that it is a conversation that deservs a lot of thought and reflection. All options have to be looked at. It's just too soon [to comment on] that."
Below is a brief, but emotional must see excerpt from Quinns remarks this morning.
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Comments
What the gay rights advocates don't understand, is that the majority of the country, and apparently in NY, do not agree with gay rights including marriage.
And I understand that the speaker has a personal interest in the vote, but to lose her decorum at the podium is not a good view to put out to the public. In that type of position, personal feelings need to be bottled so that you are view for your position not your personal opinion. As an elected official, she needs to represent her entire voter base, not just those that hold her beliefs.
Ballot initiative? Hey, is that like a public referendum? We all know how those things go. Not a good idea Ms. Quinn.
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