“I think this has been a longtime coming ,” said Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, which is taking credit for helping Chuck Schumer “evolve” and now voice support for same-sex marriage.
Capelle was nonjudgmental Schumer’s shift on this position, emphasizing that when Schumer voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the year was 1996 and “the world looked different.”
“It [DOMA] was not a big issue for anyone in the LGBT community, except for the conservative right,” said Capelle, who he said used it as “a wedge issue.”
Since voting against same-sex marriage, Capelle said Schumer “wanted to learn more.
