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NY Shared Parenting Bill Stalled in Committee
posted by Matt on 05:59 AM April 4th, 2006
Inequality According to Glenn Sacks' most recent e-mail newsletter, the Shared Parenting bill in the NYS Assembly has been stalled. He is asking for the resumption of emails and faxes (initially suspended due to their request, since so many were arriving that they couldn't do anything else).

Click "Read more..." for how to act.


From the newsletter:

Despite media coverage and over 5,000 calls and letters, powerful members of the New York Assembly Committee on Children & Families are trying to stall voting on A330, the New York Shared Parenting Bill.

We recently suspended the thousands of faxes being sent to the Committee members through our campaign page because the committee members told us they were unable to get any work done. James Hays of the Coalition of Fathers and Families New York, which is sponsoring the New York Shared Parenting Bill, has now asked us to go back to emails to deliver the message. To email now, click here.

This bill has been locked up in committee for 12 years! Opponents of Shared Parenting cannot win this battle fairly and openly--they can only prevail through political maneuvers. If one doubts the correctness of our position, one need only read last week's clash between shared parenting advocates and the National Organization for Women in the pages of the Albany Times Union. Marcia Pappas, president of New York State NOW, wrote a column called Joint custody bill not in child's interest. The column in support of the bill, penned by Mike McCormick of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children and myself, was Supporting the child by order of the court.

The vote on the bill was set for March 28 but has been postponed twice. New York is a battleground state for shared parenting and fatherhood, and we want a vote on this bill. Again, to support the bill, click here.

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As Usual (Score:1)
by Hunchback on 08:18 AM April 4th, 2006 EST (#1)
This bill, in its various incarnations, has been around for 20 years and has never gotten out of committee. This time around it has stronger grassroots support, but to ease off the pressure for even a second is a huge mistake. The feminist lobby in Albany (the capital) is huge, the staff of the various politicians has feminist sympathies (if they don't outright belong to N.O.W.), and women staffers handle all recommendations on gender matters.

As much as It gladdens my heart to see the tenacity of this effort, I remain leery until the day it finally makes it out of committee. Remember, the non-binding referendum in Massachusetts, though producing an 83% positive grassroots response, did NOT produce a shared parenting bill that breached committee. The political powers have ceded the fems all sayso on matters gender for so long that it'll probably take marches, demostrations and a street response to shake them out of the lethargy of habit at this point.

We must, of course, do what we can do; but please, folks, don't pop open the champagne quite yet.

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