Fight Back New York

Was just reading through my Google Reader and noticed something interesting: Alec Baldwin in a "fight for marriage equality" ad. The man is hilarious.

New Yorkers are a fascinating lot. Wish everyone had as much balls as they exhibited. Their FightBackPac actively campaigns against senators who voted against LGBT marriage rights. And they've actually succeeded in booting Hiram Monserrate out of the running. Their targets are 30 Republicans and 8 Democrats, citing that these very politicians also stood in the way of other progressive bills.

What makes me wonder, really, is how politicians can still afford to be this stubborn when the LGBT people no longer seem like a minority anymore. In Latin America, for instance, there's a whopping 25 million LGBT (source: ETurboNews and WebWire) -- and economists are talking about a huge untapped market.

Figured that Canada's support for same-sex marriage has something to do with why they are not as affected by the recession as the United States is. People tend to take for granted the wedding industry, where brides turn into Bridezillas (grooms into Groomzillas?) and end up spending thousands of dollars for so many frivolous items that they would never have bought were they in a much saner condition. (Been there. Done that.) When countries such as Israel and Japan do not have same-sex marriages but will recognize same-sex marriages held outside of their countries, you can imagine the number of international LGBTs going into Canada just to get wedded and then have these unions registered in their home countries. Huge cash flow for Canada, methinks. Why aren't any of the anti-gay politicians and researchers paying attention to this?

Going back to the topic, it is quite interesting to see how things will turn out for Fight Back New York.