Joe.My.God. LGBT News
New York state Sen. Mark Grisanti, one of the four Republicans who tipped marriage equality into the win column, has won his GOP primary despite ferocious opposition from the anti-gay hate group NOM, who earlier this year pledged $2 million to unseat every one of those four GOP state Senators.
Senator Mark J. Grisanti, a Buffalo Republican who had also supported same-sex marriage, comfortably fended off a challenge from Kevin T. Stocker, a Republican lawyer who accused Mr. Grisanti of breaking his word when he did so. But Mr. Grisanti’s troubles are not over. He represents a district that is heavily Democratic, and Democrats see him as vulnerable in November: he attracted unflattering attention this year when he took part in a bar brawl in an American Indian casino in Niagara Falls.
“For people that know me, I stand by my beliefs and my convictions,” Mr. Grisanti told his supporters, adding, “There are so many issues that we have done in this year. And unfortunately, you know, my opponent focused on a few. But the people spoke.” The fate of the Senate Republicans is being closely watched nationally, because New York was the first state in which same-sex marriage became legal with the support of a Republican-controlled legislative chamber.
Gay-rights advocates say they believe they will need support from Republican legislators in other states to legalize same-sex marriage, and they have been concerned that if the New York senators were defeated, Republicans elsewhere would be more reluctant to take the electoral risk of voting to allow gay men and lesbians to wed.
Earlier this week Grisanti was attacked by an anti-gay group with a flyer that was described as the “ugliest anti-gay mailer of the 2012 election.”
UPDATE: NOM concedes but vows revenge with the Democrat.
RELATED: One of the four GOP state senators mentioned above did not run for reelection. The other two primary races remain too close to call at this writing.