Republican New York Assembly Woman Janet Duprey shares her experience of changing her vote on marriage equality from "No" to "Yes" in 2009. It's a great read in the upstate Times Union. I hope her colleagues in the Senate read it.
Of particular interest is once again, predictions of the sky falling on the issue of LGBT rights turn out to be unfounded. She says: "After the vote, some were quick to write my political obituary. They said my constituents would never forgive me for changing my vote. They said the extremists who promised to defeat me would win.
They were wrong. The outpouring of support and appreciation I received was overwhelming. It came from my constituents and from advocates committed to standing behind those who support the freedom to marry.
That community of support made a difference. The moral and financial support, strategic advice and counseling and dedicated commitment by volunteers proved too much for those who campaigned against me because of my vote.
I did not lose my election because of my stand. Neither has any of the 72 Republican legislators who have voted for the freedom to marry. |
In fact, the Adirondack Daily Enterprise used the following headline to describe her 2010 relection following the vote: ASSEMBLY: Duprey routs challengersPLATTSBURGH - Janet Duprey was elected to another term in the state Assembly on Tuesday, defeating her two opponents by a wide margin.
With all districts reporting, Duprey, a Republican from Peru, collected 19,132 votes. Her Democratic opponent, Rudy Johnson of Malone, received 8,007 votes while Conservative party challenger David Kimmel of Cadyville collected 5,149 votes.
Again, despite fears the Conservative Party is, according to the New York Times "Gay Marriage's No. 1 Obstacle In New York,", it turns out they couldn't even make a decent showing. Stripped of her Conservative Party Ballot line, and faced with a challenger, she still collected nearly four times as many votes as the Conservative Party candidate.
We can probably just assume marriage equality is just not a deal breaker for anyone outside a far right religious conservative circles.
As her fundamentalist Christian support fell off, Duprey found her a whole new world of grateful supporters. These words echo GOP donor Daniel S. Loeb's prediction he made in New York Times:
One of the donors, Daniel S. Loeb, who has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates for federal office in the last two years, said he hoped to make clear to Republicans that same-sex marriage had a broad coalition of support.
"I think it is important in particular for Republicans to know this is a bipartisan issue," Mr. Loeb said. "If they're Republican, they will not be abandoned by the party for supporting this. On the contrary, I think they will find that there is a whole new world of people who will support them on an ongoing basis if they support this cause." |
