Capital New York: For lawmakers, health initiatives are a long game

By Dan Goldberg 6:08 a.m. | Dec. 23, 2014

New York's first press conference on a gay rights bill took place in 1971, said Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, who attended as a freshman legislator. It was held in the legislative library in Albany and there were so few attendees that “nobody had to tell us to shush,” he recalled.

It was two years after the Stonewall riots and homosexual acts were still criminal in New York City. The bill, introduced by then-Assemblyman William Passannante, failed, 84-61, that year, and Passannante's colleagues in the Assembly questioned the lawmaker's own sexual orientation for deigning to bring it up.

Advocates kept pushing, though, and 31 years later, a gay rights bill became law, passed by a Republican Senate and signed by a Republican governor.

Legislators like Gottfried keep stories such as that in mind when pushing bills that seem to have little chance in the current political environment.

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