Marriage Bill Tests Senate Leader's Loyalty to Church, and to State

It was just three days after Gov. David A. Paterson introduced a bill that would allow same-sex couples to marry, and the Rev. Floyd H. Flake had some thoughts for any lawmaker who wanted to change New York's definition of marriage.

"I don't care what the politicians think," Mr. Flake, a former Democratic congressman and one of the city's most influential religious leaders, thundered last week during a Sunday service at the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral in Queens. "Ain't nothing perfect about laying down and signing a license with somebody who got the same body parts you got."

Mr. Flake went on for about two minutes, much to the delight of many in the pews, who cheered and applauded as the church organist punctuated the reverend's words with notes from "I've Got a Woman," by Ray Charles.

The sentiment, shared in many churches, would normally warrant little notice. Mr. Flake is the pastor of a predominantly black congregation in a community with a socially conservative tilt — hardly an unlikely spokesman for those opposed to same-sex marriage.

But Mr. Flake is also a mentor to the Senate majority leader, Malcolm A. Smith, who is among a handful of political leaders in Albany who will be responsible for the fate of same-sex marriage in New York.

Looking on as Mr. Flake preached that morning were Mr. Smith's wife, Michele, and one of his senior aides, Mortimer Lawrence. Mr. Smith was not in church that day, though he is a regular.

Mr. Smith's close relationship with Mr. Flake and the Allen A.M.E. church encapsulates the pressure the senator is experiencing from two distinct worlds — the political and the spiritual — as he strives to persuade his colleagues that they should vote to legalize same-sex marriage.

"He is both a servant of God and a servant of the state," Mr. Flake said in a telephone interview. "It's clearly a dichotomy one does not like to be in, but it's clearly before him now."

Mr. Smith, who went to work for Mr. Flake in 1986 as a Congressional aide, said the minister's views on the subject have not weakened his own resolve to see same-sex marriage legalized. Though they speak nearly every day, the two men said they have not broached the topic recently.

"He knows what my position is. I know what his position is," Mr. Smith said. "He looks at it as a religious matter, and I look at it as a legal matter."

Mr. Smith said he arrived at his decision to support same-sex marriage two years ago when he began considering it a matter of equal rights. See Marriage Bill Tests Senate Leader's Loyalty to Church, and to State
New York Times - United States