ALBANY—Move another vote into the yes column on same-sex marriage.
Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson said she will support the measure, having been previously counted as uncommitted.
She revealed she has a gay brother, who was shunned by her family–her mother is a preacher–and moved to France. Hassell-Thompson only later in life, after a long search, found him. She said when he died, in a committed relationship, “those things that he should have been entitled to as a married couple he was not entitled to.”
She also noted that her sister, now, is a preacher. And that she is a devout Christian. But she sees this as an issue of “leadership,” and that people should be entitled to make a choice to marry who they choose.
“If there is condemnation in that choice, and that’s something that my church preaches, then that’s between them and God,” she said.
The vote is still too close to call.