Advocates of gay marriage suffered yet another blow yesterday, as the New York State Senate voted 24-38 to reject a proposal that would have legalized same-sex marriages in the state of New York.  Governor Patterson had pledged to sign the legislation.

This comes right on the heels of the Maine voters approving a veto that overturned a similar piece of legislation aimed at extending equal marriage rights to homosexual couples.

Indeed, the debate in the New York Senate (which, if you can believe it, is more conservative than the Maine Senate) echoed almost exactly the debate in the Maine legislature earlier this year.  The same types of testimonials, the same commentary about faith and politics, the same discussions of equal rights, and most of all, the same call for “the voters of the state to decide” rather than politicians.

But unlike Maine, this time the legislature itself put a stop to talk of same sex marriage, and after passing the New York Assembly, it died in the Senate.

So goes the nation, indeed.

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