Queerty interviews Alan Van Capelle, executive director of Empire State Pride Agenda, on the fall of Eliot Spitzer, the rise of David Paterson, and the outlook for equal marriage in New York State. Worth reading in its entirety. Here are some excerpts.

On politicians and the gay community:

Somehow people say [of elected officials], “They’re friends of our community because they came to our dinner or spoke to our crowd”. There’s also, “Well, they’re a friend of our community because they voted on a bill, but they didn’t sponsor it and these are our friends”. I think we’ve lowered the bar for what friends are, but even if we raised the bar ten times where it should have been, the fact that Spitzer became the first governor in the country to introduce marriage equality legislation absolutely means something.

On how introducing a marriage equality bill helped us:

We would never have gotten a vote in the Assembly for marriage equality had the Governor not made this a program bill and a priority for his administration. Had Governor Spitzer not introduced marriage equality bill, we wouldn’t have had a bill in the Assembly, a bill that had the weight of the executive behind it, we wouldn’t have had a vote and wouldn’t be 2/3 of the way to winning 1,324 rights in New York. I know people who personally voted for the bill because Governor Spitzer sent it out as a program bill. I know that for a fact, because before the bill was introduced, we had 35 on the record supporters for marriage equality and when we introduced the bill, we suddenly picked up more sponsors.

On Paterson’s pro-LGBT views:

[T]his is a guy with whom I sat with last year on countless evenings going over with him a list of Assembly members who were either on the fence or had a soft “no,” and he would help me and the Pride Agenda press strategies where we went to individuals. Paterson would say, “Okay, this person said ‘yes’? Let me call them tomorrow and make sure that’s a real yes or a soft yes”.

On the day of the vote, which I have never seen in my history at Albany, the Lt. Governor showed up on the floor 45-minutes before the Assembly debate and personally talked to the people who supported the bill and then came up to the gallery to talk to the gay community and tell them he had our backs. That had never happened before in a decade that I’ve been going up to Albany. It was really incredible.

On how he feels about Spitzer now:

… LGBT New Yorkers are not only part of an LGBT community, but we’re also New Yorkers, so when I’m wearing my LGBT hat, then, yes, he’s absolutely delivered to our community. But I’m also a New Yorker, so if these allegations are true, I’m really angry that our Governor did this. I don’t think – if he’s proved to have done money laundering and other stuff he could be charged with, I don’t think that’s necessarily somebody we want to be with. No one’s saying he’s not a friend of our community.

New York Lieutentant Governor David Paterson, who would become governor if Spitzer resigned, “has typically been ahead of his time on gay issues over the years,” according to The Advocate.

Paterson has been on record in support of marriage equality as early as 1994. When Paterson was asked if he would take part in pushing through the marriage bill following his inauguration in January 2007, he told the New York Blade , “I’m not going to be in that fight — I’m going to be in front of that fight because my first day as [senate minority leader] was the day we passed the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act. One of the reasons we need same-sex marriage is because the statistics for heterosexual marriage are so bad; that might be a way to upgrade some of the success rates.”

As far back as 1987, Paterson refused to pass a state hate-crimes bill that didn’t provide protections for gays and lesbians. “He was willing to let everything go down rather than to exclude us,” Sherrill recalled.

Ultimately, LGBT leaders with knowledge of New York’s political landscape suggested that a Spitzer resignation might be work in the community’s favor.

“If Spitzer resigns, it might be a blessing in disguise from an LGBT agenda point of view,” said the anonymous source. “Spitzer would likely be damaged goods whereas Paterson won’t have that baggage.”

Well, this totally sucks for the state of New York. So much for political reform.

I like Spitzer a lot. But I don’t see how he survives this. Not when the Democrats are ONE SEAT away from taking control of the state senate for the first time in more than 40 years and kicking the awful Joe Bruno out of power.

I agree with Homer. We all do stupid things. The body doesn’t have enough blood to control the dick and the brain at the same time. Spitzer took a risk, and he got caught. Unfortunately, (1) this isn’t the 1950s, where the press will keep these things hush-hush; and (2) it was a prostitute (illegal), not just adultery (legal). Regardless of whether prostitution should be legal or not, the former attorney general flouted the law.

Anyway, I wonder what this means for gays’ right to marry. Spitzer is a strong supporter of marriage equality. I hope David Paterson is, too. Not that it will matter if the Democrats don’t take back the senate.