Kirsten Gillibrand selected as New York’s new U.S. Senator

Gov. Paterson announced today that he has appointed Kirsten Gillibrand as New York State’s new U.S. Senator. Gillibrand, previous U.S. Congresswoman from New York’s 20^th district, will fill the seat left by Hillary Clinton. During her acceptance speech following Paterson’s announcement, Gillibrand stated, “I will advocate for marriage equality.” Gillibrand now joins Governor Paterson, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith and numerous other elected officials in the New York State Legislature and across the state who support the freedom to marry for same-sex couples.

Prior to the announcement today, Kirsten Gillibrand contacted Pride Agenda Executive Director Alan Van Capelle to talk about a range of LGBT issues, and affirmed her strong support for marriage equality, the full repeal of the federal DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) law, repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) and passage of legislation outlawing discrimination against transgender people. We look forward to working with her on the issues that the LGBT community cares so much about.

Click here to read the statement we released following the Governor’s announcement.