Powerful Gay Marriage Opponent Bruno Won't Seek Re-Election To NYS Senate

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: June 24, 2008 - 5:00 pm ET

(Albany, New York) The top Republican in New York State and its most vocal opponent of LGBT civil rights, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, has confirmed he will not seek re-election.

The 79-year-old state Senate Majority Leader has used his power to consistently block pro-gay legislation.

Last year the NYS Assembly passed legislation that would allow same-sex couples to marry. The measure had the approval of then Gov. Elliott Spitzer and most recently current Gov. David Paterson.

Bruno has refused to allow the bill to be considered in the Senate.

For seven years in a row the Assembly passed the Dignity For All Students Act. Bruno opposed the anti-bullying bill in the Senate over its inclusion of gender identity.

Bruno also opposed the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, or GENDA, which bans discrimination against transgender people in housing, employment, credit, public accommodations, and other areas of everyday life.

Considered the oldest serving state legislative leader in the country, has run the Senate for more than a dozen years and has been the state's top Republican since 2006.

He was known as a formidable opponent who crippled the administration of Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned amid a prostitution scandal in March.

Bruno turned a story about his own use of state aircraft against Spitzer, accusing the governor's aides of political espionage and misuse of state police. Several investigations followed and although no charges resulted, Bruno used them to erode Spitzer's once historic popularity.

Bruno has had his own problems. He has been under an FBI investigation for more than a year in a prove which appears to be looking at his business associates outside of state government.

The investigation stems from an ongoing inquiry begun in late 2005 by the state Lobbying Commission into the relationship between the Senate leader and an Albany-area businessman, Jared Abbruzzese.

Democrats control the Assembly with a healthy lead but with the GOP holding a slim majority in the Senate Republicans are searching for a new leader who will maintain control of the upper house.