Following last year's passage of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), legalizing recreational marijuana in New York, Democrat Senator Jeremy Cooney has sponsored Senate Bill S.7603, a push for licenses to be issued to certain people within the marijuana industry.
"According to Senator Cooney, there needs to be affirmative action for the lesbian, gay, and bisexual community," details Rev. Jason McGuire of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms (NYCF). "He wants preferential treatment so that these marijuana licenses would go to those who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. One has to wonder what even members of the transgender community will think after being left off of that bill. It makes no sense here in The Empire State."
McGuire recalls that during the lengthy battle over same-gender marriage, homosexuals argued that they only wanted to be treated like everybody else.
"Yet when it comes down to it, it is special treatment," he continues. "It is preferential treatment whether it's in the definition of marriage, whether it's in the rearing of children, or now even in regard to what business licenses are handed out."
So he submits that it has nothing to do with being treated the same, but "it's preferential treatment for certain segments of the community."
If the licensing law passes, NYCF warns it will "take a bad law and make it ridiculous."
