Marriage Bill Poses a Test of Loyalties: Church vs. State

Marriage Bill Poses a Test of Loyalties: Church vs. State
By JEREMY W. PETERS
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: April 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/nyregion/27smith.html?th&emc=th


It was just three days after Gov. David A. Paterson introduced a bill that would allow same-sex couples to marry, and the Rev. Floyd H. Flake had some thoughts for any lawmaker who wanted to change New York’s definition of marriage.

Malcolm A. Smith, the Senate majority leader, favors a same-sex marriage bill.

The Rev. Floyd H. Flake, Mr. Smith's mentor, does not favor a same-sex marriage bill.

“I don’t care what the politicians think,” Mr. Flake, a former Democratic congressman and one of the city’s most influential religious leaders, thundered last week during a Sunday service at the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral in Queens. “Ain’t nothing perfect about laying down and signing a license with somebody who got the same body parts you got.”

Mr. Flake went on for about two minutes, much to the delight of many in the pews, who cheered and applauded as the church organist punctuated the reverend’s words with notes from “I’ve Got a Woman,” by Ray Charles.

The sentiment, shared in many churches, would normally warrant little notice. Mr. Flake is the pastor of a predominantly black congregation in a community with a socially conservative tilt — hardly an unlikely spokesman for those opposed to same-sex marriage.

But Mr. Flake is also a mentor to the Senate majority leader, Malcolm A. Smith, who is among a handful of political leaders in Albany who will be responsible for the fate of same-sex marriage in New York.

Looking on as Mr. Flake preached that morning were Mr. Smith’s wife, Michele, and one of his senior aides, Mortimer Lawrence. Mr. Smith was not in church that day, though he is a regular.

Mr. Smith’s close relationship with Mr. Flake and the Allen A.M.E. church encapsulates the pressure the senator is experiencing from two distinct worlds — the political and the spiritual — as he strives to persuade his colleagues that they should vote to legalize same-sex marriage.

“He is both a servant of God and a servant of the state,” Mr. Flake said in a telephone interview. “It’s clearly a dichotomy one does not like to be in, but it’s clearly before him now.”

Mr. Smith, who went to work for Mr. Flake in 1986 as a Congressional aide, said the minister’s views on the subject have not weakened his own resolve to see same-sex marriage legalized. Though they speak nearly every day, the two men said they have not broached the topic recently.

“He knows what my position is. I know what his position is,” Mr. Smith said. “He looks at it as a religious matter, and I look at it as a legal matter.”

Mr. Smith said he arrived at his decision to support same-sex marriage two years ago when he began considering it a matter of equal rights.

“People being together, you know, has no implication on most other people’s lives,” he said. “I think people deserve to be with who they want to be with. Who am I to dictate?”

It has not been an easy stance for him to take. His advocacy on the issue nearly prevented him from becoming majority leader, which he holds by a mere one-vote margin. And now he is at odds with some same-sex marriage supporters, most notably Mr. Paterson, over how quickly to bring the bill to the floor.

Mr. Paterson would like to see a vote regardless of whether the measure has enough support, while Mr. Smith has said he prefers to wait until he can be certain it will pass.

Holding a vote soon would likely create a confrontation with Senator Rubén Díaz, a Pentecostal minister and a Democrat from the Bronx, who strongly opposes giving gays the right to marry and who fills a key position in Mr. Smith’s narrow majority.

It was Mr. Díaz who said he could not support a Senate leader who would permit a vote on a same-sex marriage bill. Mr. Díaz initially withheld his vote for Mr. Smith, along with two other Democratic senators who were reluctant to lend him their support for different reasons.

In January, before Mr. Smith was elected leader, the two men spoke and reached a truce, according to several people who knew about their conversations but did not want to be identified because the discussions were meant to be private. Mr. Smith explained to Mr. Díaz that there were not enough senators who supported same-sex marriage and that the issue was not likely to come up for a vote. That was apparently enough to satisfy Mr. Díaz, who ended up supporting Mr. Smith as leader.

But the issue has gained momentum now that Vermont and Iowa have moved to legalize same-sex marriage, and calls are growing louder for a vote in Albany. Mr. Díaz has made no secret of his displeasure and has vowed to block any move to make same-sex unions legal. “There will be no same-sex marriage,” Mr. Díaz told people gathered at his church, Christian Community Neighborhood Church in the Bronx, on the same morning that Mr. Paterson said he was introducing the marriage bill.

Among Mr. Smith’s constituents, there is clearly some unhappiness about his position.

“I’m not into gay marriage — no, no sir,” said Urcelna Henry, 73, who was at Williams Laundromat, which is next to Mr. Smith’s district office in St. Albans, Queens. Then, referring to Mr. Smith, she added, “If he was a man who followed the Bible, he wouldn’t be for it.”

Mr. Smith said such opposition does not diminish his determination to legalize same-sex marriage, though he is not sure he can secure enough votes before the Legislature ends its session in June.

“I’m a strong supporter,” he said. “I have been and will be.”

His approach in trying to persuade colleagues wary of voting to legalize gay marriage will be gentle, he said, because he believes that is the best way to sway opinions. “I don’t try to shove anything down people’s throats,” he said. “I just try to move them to a point where they understand that it’s the right thing to do.”

And in discussing his differences on the issue with Mr. Flake, Mr. Smith likened his support of gay rights to former Gov. Mario Cuomo’s support for abortion rights even though Mr. Cuomo is Catholic and the Vatican opposes the practice. “I’m in office to do what I think is right,” he said.

Ultimately, Mr. Flake said, the decision to support same-sex marriage and the consequences that decision may produce belong to Mr. Smith. “I told him he has to live with his conscience,” Mr. Flake said.

Angela Macropoulos and Mathew R. Warren contributed reporting.