Al Taylor has come around on New York’s Equality Amendment
The state Legislature didn’t need the support of Assembly Member Al Taylor to advance a constitutional amendment that would prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ people and prevent actions limiting access to reproductive health care. But Taylor, a Democrat and longtime pastor in Harlem, nonetheless voted in favor of the constitutional amendment this week, sending it to voters in November 2024. But just last year, Taylor voted against the same amendment.
Speaking to City & State on Wednesday, Taylor said he voted in favor of the Equality Amendment this year after realizing that his personal beliefs as clergy should not “overrule the right for someone else to make their own decisions.” The amendment specifies new protections from discrimination based on ethnicity, national origin, age, disability or sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive health care and autonomy. Currently, the state constitution offers protection from discrimination based on race, color, creed or religion.Taylor did not elaborate when asked what his specific objections to the amendment were when he voted against it last year. But when first asked about his vote this year, he referenced the right to choose. “I felt that I had to take my personal (beliefs) and sit it on the side, and say to the voters, ‘You decide. You have a right to make that decision. A woman does have the right to make her own decisions.’ And it should go on the ballot,” Taylor said.
Taylor, who is primarying Democratic City Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan for her Harlem council seat this spring, did not elaborate when asked what he believes abortion access should look like. He voted against the 2019 Reproductive Health Act, which codified the protections of Roe v. Wade in New York. But Taylor noted that he voted for some of the abortion bills that passed last spring after it was reported that the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn its landmark abortion decision.
“I’m clergy. I believe in supporting life 1,000%,” Taylor told City & State. “But I have been elected by folks that want me to do the best for the state. And there comes a time when you’re making decisions, you have to make sure that you allow everybody’s voice to be heard. And I prematurely didn’t allow that last year.”