Ready, Fire, Aim! - Mihail's Public Blog: San Francisco mayor takes on NYC mayor!

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Friday, February 11, 2005

San Francisco mayor takes on NYC mayor!

Go, Newsom! According to this San Francisco Chronicle story, Mayor Newsom was recently forced to comment by reporters on the issue of New York city mayor Bloomberg who is trying to both appease Republicans so that he can survive the Republican primary yet win re-election in mostly liberal New York:

Bloomberg, who has said he personally favors same-sex marriage, announced over the weekend that he would challenge the ruling of a judge in Manhattan earlier this month that gay couples have the right to marry under the state's Constitution. Bloomberg has said he believes New York state law forbids the practice.

..."I think if you believe something, you've got to act on it,'' the San Francisco mayor said. "If you don't believe in it, don't act on it. But don't say you believe something and then do everything to stifle that belief."

...A legal brief submitted to the court by New York City discussed the tradition of marriage going back to the Book of Genesis in the Bible. Newsom said denying blacks citizenship and the right to vote were traditions in the United States at one time.

"Well, if you want to talk about tradition being codified in this country, tradition was codified in the (1857) Dred Scott decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to deny blacks citizenship," Newsom said. "That was tradition. It was wrong. ...

"So when Mayor Bloomberg or others say it's tradition -- marriage between a man and a woman -- I harken back to those days where the tradition was challenged because it was the right thing to do, and I wish that the mayor (of New York City) would challenge the tradition of bigotry as it relates to same-sex marriages. I think that would be courageous."

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