The Battle For New York

Poet and author Maya Angelou has come out for marriage equality. As a resident of New York--she owns a home in Harlem--Angelou is lobbying New York state senators to vote for marriage-equality legislation, something she calls a matter of fairness.

Indeed it is, Maya, indeed it is.

“To love someone takes a lot of courage,” Miss Angelou told the New York Times. “So how much more is one challenged when the love is of the same sex and the laws say, ‘I forbid you from loving this person’?”

And there are other high profile personalities lobbying the legislature: Paul Tagliabue, the former commissioner of the NFL, whose son is gay, and, of course,. fierce gay advocate and newly engaged Cynthia Nixon.

Marriage-equality legislation passed the New York assembly on May 12, but with just four weeks left in the legislative session, its outcome remains uncertain in the closely divided state senate.

Sidenote of stupidity and hatred: despite Maya Angelou’s stature, a call this week to Democratic state senator Shirley Huntley, from Queens, did not convince the senator, who opposes marriage equality, and apparently chooses discrimination. Huntley actually said, “If they gave me a million dollars, tax free, I just wouldn’t vote for it.”

I say take up a collection and pay her to just go away.