ALBANY ? The Cuomo administration and legislative leaders have reached agreement on language to protect religious institutions from obligations to recognize same-sex marriage, two people involved in the negotiations said on Friday afternoon, potentially paving the way for a vote on the marriage legislation.
Senate Republicans were still discussing the marriage bill in a closed-door meeting on Friday afternoon; it remained unclear when ? or if ? they would permit a vote on the broader legislation. The State Assembly, which approved an earlier version of the same-sex marriage bill last week, would need to approve the new language before the full bill could become law.
Emerging from a meeting with Speaker Sheldon Silver, Assemblyman Daniel J. O?Donnell, a Manhattan Democrat who sponsored the Assembly version of the bill, said that there was an ?agreement in principle? on the new language. He predicted that the Assembly would vote to adopt the new language on Friday.
Republicans have made no committment to bring the marriage measure to a floor vote. But a Senate spokesman said the decision would be announced sometime Friday night.
Gay rights advocates said they were prepared to accept the new language and were hopeful that Senate Republicans would vote on the measure Friday.
In a statement, New Yorkers United for Marriage, an umbrella group of gay rights organizations, said:
?The amended Marriage Equality legislation protects religious liberties without creating any special exceptions that would penalize same-sex couples or treat them unequally. The legislation strikes an appropriate balance that allows all loving, committed couples to marry while preserving religious freedom.?
As of Friday afternoon, the number of senators who had voiced support for the marriage measure ? 31 out of 62, one short of a majority ? had not changed in over a week.
Most Republican senators have said they strongly oppose the measure on religious or moral grounds. Still other Republicans are worried that passage of the measure could provoke a spate of primary challenges ? or low turnout among conservatives ? next year, when Republicans will be battling to retain their one-vote Senate majority in newly redrawn legislative districts.
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