On Saturday, February 7, 2009, Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D - Queens) delivered an address at the HRC Annual Dinner.  HRC (formerly known as the Human Rights Campaign) is a large gay-rights lobbying group. 

HRC, Empire State Pride Agenda, and other same-sex marriage advocacy groups played a role in delivering the State Senate to Senator Malcolm Smith and a liberal Democratic leadership.

Senator Smith pledged his full support for same-sex marriage once again and went so far as to ask that people would "pray" for the passage of same-sex marriage legislation in New York.

Rev. Jason McGuire, New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms' Legislative Director, had this to say about the senator's comments, "I am outraged that Senator Smith would wrap same-sex marriage in the mantle of religious overtones.  God created marriage as an institution between one man and one woman. Any attempt to redefine the family is an affront to the God of the Scriptures and is bad public policy to pursue."