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Written by Cory Liebmann
Jun 30, 2011
New York has officially become the sixth state to enact a marriage equality law. This is an obvious victory on a number of levels. New York has the third largest population in the nation, so its action opens the door to full equality for many more people. Because New York does not require residency to obtain a marriage license, the new law impacts people beyond the state’s borders.
We must remember that a winning political strategy helped deliver these results. As we celebrate the New York developments in Wisconsin, we should look at how that strategy worked.
The day after the historic vote, The New York Times ran an in-depth, behind-the-scenes report on how the marriage law was passed. The most prominent theme of the story was the strong and determined leadership of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He reportedly told people in very simple and direct terms, “I have to do this.” He didn’t just say the words, but rather he proceeded to take full charge and ownership of the actual effort.
Leveraging personal relationships proved critical very early in the effort. Cuomo’s longtime companion has an openly gay brother, and one of the key Republican funders of the effort has a gay son. The personal and family relationships of some key legislators helped to eventually flip their votes on the marriage issue. Leveraging these personal connections clearly helped inspire the effort.
To their credit, all but one of the Democrats in the New York Senate voted for the marriage equality bill. Because of the near-perfect solidarity among Democrats, the coalition only needed a handful of moderate Republicans to join them. That is when the well-timed use of corporate support for equality proved to be yet another key to the overall strategy. When one of the four Republican moderates who eventually voted for the bill was having a problem getting off the fence, a major employer in his district publicly endorsed the marriage bill. That endorsement plus a letter-writing campaign from people in his district helped to finally push him into voting for equality.
Another critical part of the effort included the use of many different groups joining together and collaborating as a single unit. Rather than constantly competing with each other and doing their own thing, these groups resolved to play from the exact same book. They shared the same goals, the same timing and even the same name. That was quite an accomplishment, as the coalition included wealthy Republican donors, major corporations, labor unions and a wide variety of LGBT advocacy organizations. It seems that every element of the coalition focused on its specialty and employed it at just the right moment.
The story of New York’s victory offers guidance into how we might adjust our advocacy efforts in Wisconsin. Obviously we are not operating in the same context or environment. But that doesn’t mean we can’t take away lessons to apply here at home.
