Manhattan Young Democrats Lead on Marriage Equality (Updated)

I want to give a big shout out here on the blog to some excellent online organizing on the part of the Manhattan Young Democrats. Those of you following the many gay marriage battles across the country will likely know that New York State Assembly recently passed a gay marriage bill, but that similar legislation faces an uphill battle in the state senate, despite the fact that Democrats now control the senate and the bill is supported by the Governor.

A few days ago, a diarist at the Albany Project, one of the most influential NY State Politics Blogs, threw down the gauntlet and called-out New York state advocacy orgs for pulling their punches on this issue and failing to put together a creative, coherent online strategy in support of the legislation. Not one day later, the Manhattan Young Democrats rushed in to fill the void, launching a new website, New York Equality, and an online campaign to pressure swing senators to vote in favor of equal rights for all New Yorkers.

From the MYD press release:

“Newyorkequality.com is making it easy for New Yorkers to get involved and to have their Senators take seriously their views on the importance of marriage equality,” said Al Benninghoff, MYD President. “Our strategy is to inundate the Senators who oppose the bill, regardless of what party they represent, with messages from their own constituents asking them to change their opinions.”

Newyorkequality.com has a powerful assortment of online organizing tools that allow individuals to send targeted emails and handwritten letters to their State Senators based on the district they live in and whether their Senators support or oppose the bill. MYD and its partners have established this website to create an easy conduit for legislative outreach to Senators in New York who still refuse to act on this crucial issue. Along with the sent emails, MYD will hand deliver to Albany a copy of every letter generated by the site.

In just one day, the Manhattan Young Dems have met with great success. So far:

• 30,000 40,000 people have visited Newyorkequality.com.
• 300 400 fans have joined their Facebook page.
• Elicited over a hundred Tweets, including some from major progressive bloggers, using their #nyequality hashtag.
• The campaign was featured on The Albany Project (Update) and now Perez Hilton and the Politico.
• MYD assembled a coalition of about a dozen New York political organizations including ACT-NOW, Bronx Community Pride Center, College Democrats of NY, DL21C, Drinking Liberally NY, Human Rights Campaign, Marriage Equality New York, Queens County Young Dems, Richmond County Young Dems, Rockland County Young Dems, and Westchester County Young Dems.

Not bad for a day's work. I'm told that if this endeavor is successful, it will likely become a model for all future Manhattan Young Dems work. Regardless of the final vote in the New York Senate, this campaign should probably become a template for all online organizing by Young Democrats across the country.

(Hat tip to MYD Julie Blitzer for alerting me to this story)