Acclaimed memoirist and poet Maya Angelou is among the celebrities lobbying New York state senators to vote for marriage-equality legislation, reports The New York Times.
Angelou, who maintains a home in Harlem in New York City, placed three phone calls to state senators in the past week, compelled by her belief that allowing same-sex couples to marry is a matter of fairness.
“To love someone takes a lot of courage,” the 81-year-old said in an interview with the newspaper. “So how much more is one challenged when the love is of the same sex and the laws say, ‘I forbid you from loving this person’?”
Other prominent personalities lobbying the legislature include Paul Tagliabue, the former commissioner of the National Football League, who has a gay son, and Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon, who is a lesbian.
Nixon plans to visit lawmakers in Albany on Tuesday.
Marriage-equality legislation passed the assembly on May 12, but with four weeks left in the legislative session, its outcome remains uncertain in the closely divided state senate.
Despite Angelou’s stature, a call this week did not convince state senator Shirley Huntley, a Democrat from Queens who opposes the marriage-equality bill, to support it.
“If they gave me a million dollars, tax free, I just wouldn’t vote for it,” Huntley told the newspaper.
1 comment:
I am so happy to see this. She is such a powerful and calm voice. I had the great pleasure of hearing her speak at Shippensburg University as she toured some years ago.
Maya honors us. We are caged birds.
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