ALBANY — Gay marriage-advocate Mayor Bloomberg suffered a setback in Albany yesterday after his closest state Senate ally introduced legislation to roll back existing same-sex marriage rights.
The bill sponsored by Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn) voids recognition of gay marriages performed in other states, and comes just two days after the mayor traveled to Albany to press Senate Republicans to legalize same-sex nuptials.
Golden, one of Bloomberg’s few reliable Capitol supporters, insisted the legislation “had nothing to do with” the mayor’s visit.
“It’s a message to the people of the state of New York that there’s at least some normalcy within this great state, the Empire State, and in the state Senate,” the Conservative-endorsed senator said.
Although legislation to approve gay marriage failed the Senate in 2009, New York does recognize same-sex marriage in the five states that recognize it, including Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont.
Golden’s effort to end that gives conservative senators a rallying point in the fight against gay marriage.
Golden, who appeared with Bloomberg Tuesday at a news conference protesting threatened federal Homeland Security cuts, said they never discussed gay marriage.
“The mayor knows fully where I stand on the marriage issue,” he said.
The senator said voters in his southwest Brooklyn district “don’t really give a rat’s ass about social issues” and would prefer that the Senate focus on economic problems.
The mayor bluntly dismissed Golden’s proposal.
“We oppose this legislation, and the chance it becomes law is zero,” Bloomberg spokesman Mark Botnick said.
The billionaire mayor, who gave $900,000 from his vast personal fortune to help Republicans win back the Senate last year, urged GOP senators to get on “the right side of history” by approving the marriage bill.
The legislation has passed the Democratic-run Assembly three times, but failed in the Senate by 38-24.
A Siena poll released yesterday showed New Yorkers support legalized gay marriage by 54-42 percent, down from 58-36 last month, when advocates began to ramp up their legalization campaign.