Paterson is a fair weather friend. The minute the NY Senate thing blew up and Paterson demanded legislators meet to pass important bills, SSM and GENDA were nowhere to be found in his agenda.

Once the big-money gay activist orgs like the Empire State Pride Agenda complained, however, Paterson added SSM to the "important legislation" list, but GENDA is still nowhere to be seen nor has it gotten so much as a mention from our so-called "allies".

FT, one day you're going to learn, as the rest of us already have, that in the end these people care about no one but themselves and their own continuing power and privilege. Personally, I hope that day comes soon.

Well done Fr. Tony

Gov. Paterson may be "with" the GLB community and I see no evidence at all that he even thinks of the gender variant portion. This was to be the year for GENDA (Gender Expression Non Discrimination Act) and DASA (Dignity for All Students Act). Marriage equality legislation was considered an impossibility because of the opposition from the homophobic Democrats like Rev. Ruben Diaz of the Bronx. Despite this, Gov. Paterson introduce marriage equality legislation which effectively co-opted the debate away from equal protections to same sex marriage. Now that the republicans have engineered a coup in the Senate, none of these bills are likely to be passed.

This pandering to the GLB community makes political sense, of course, because trans people are a minority within the minority and they have little financial clout - thanks in part to endemic discrimination in the workplace - so he obviously thinks it costs him little to ignore us. The reaction to these circumstances from the GLB(t) organizations in our state leave little doubt as to their tacit support of his actions.

As a trans lesbian I am very supportive of marriage equality in New York State but I still maintain that inclusive nondiscrimination law is more vital for the entire community. Gov. Paterson ignored this for political gain and I cannot but condemn him for that.