Paterson will introduce the measure – which revives a bill that died in 2007 – despite uncertain prospects for its adoption in the state Senate.

“This means it’s a priority for him,” said Sen. Thomas Duane, a Manhattan Democrat and one of the Senate’s biggest advocates for gay marriage.

Duane said he’s been invited to take part in the bill’s unveiling with the governor at an event Thursday in Manhattan.

Despite a slim Democratic majority in the Senate, the bill faces stiff opposition in the chamber. Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, a Queens Democrat, supports the measure but does not intend to have a vote unless there are enough votes to pass it.

“We don’t want to jeopardize the momentum by putting it up before it has enough votes to pass,” Austin Shafran, a Smith spokesman, said Tuesday.

Paterson, a Democrat, told several upstate radio stations last week that he intended to re-introduce the measure and hoped the Senate would vote on it regardless of whether it had the votes to pass.

The state Assembly has already approved legislation legalizing same sex marriage.

Duane expressed confidence that the measure would ultimately be adopted by the Senate.

“When the governor signs this bill into law, it is going to be a defining moment for him,” Duane said.

Article Glen Blain -NY DAILY  NEWS


UPDATE!   A majority of New Yorkers support gay marriage and
 Gov. Paterson’s attempt to legalize it, a new poll shows.


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