Governor Paterson speaks out on marriage equality, safe schools and transgender protections

Last night several of us from the Pride Agenda attended the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s New York Leadership Awards dinner in New York City where Governor David Paterson was honored for his longstanding work on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights.

The Pride Agenda’s Executive Director Alan Van Capelle was to have introduced the Governor to the crowd, but due to ongoing budget negotiations in Albany the Governor was unable to attend. Instead Alan introduced top Paterson aide Sean Maloney who accepted the award on behalf of the Governor. After brief remarks, Maloney let the Governor do the rest of the talking through his video message, which as you will see is both humorous and heartfelt.

Not only did Governor Paterson renew his vow “to push on until we bring full marriage equality to New York state,” he also promised to fight for an end to bullying in schools due to bias and discrimination protections for transgender New Yorkers -- all issues well over 1000 New Yorkers will be traveling to Albany on April 29 to talk about with their legislators as part of our annual Equality & Justice Day.