Civil-rights end-game in New York

Yesterday the New York state Assembly passed a gay-marriage bill, paving the way for it to go to the state Senate, where the real drama begins. The state Senate has a Republican majority, but two Republicans and three conservative Democrats who previously opposed gay marriage now say they will do the right thing and vote for it, and the bill is just one vote short of what it needs for passage. New York state voters support gay marriage 58%-to-36%. The state Senate vote could come today or tomorrow.

Tuesday saw another victory, when a federal court in California rejected the bigots' claim that Judge Vaughn Walker should have recused himself from the Prop. 8 case because he is himself gay and might choose to marry if it were legal. The argument was a bizarre one; by such "logic", a black judge would have to recuse himself from a black civil-rights case, a woman judge could not rule on a women's-rights case, etc.