Four hours after a largely Latino crowd led by anti-gay Bronx Democratic State Senator Ruben Diaz gathered outside the governor's office on Third Avenue in Midtown, a crowd of marriage equality supporters rallied on Sixth Avenue a block east of Times Square.

The 5 p.m. rally on May 17 followed by four days the State Assembly's passage, by an 89-52 margin, of Democratic Governor David Paterson's marriage equality bill. Advocates are pressing to garner the 32 votes needed to move the measure through the 62-member State Senate before it adjourns at the end of June. With the Democrats holding only 32 votes and Diaz an implacable foe, Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith will need to attract at least some Republican votes as well as walk back a couple of Democrats who have voiced opposition.

The marriage equality rally, organized by Broadway Impact, a theater industry group devoted to advancing the issue, drew leading lights from the stage -- including Cynthia Nixon, David Hyde Pierce, and Cheyenne Jackson, all out gay performers -- and top New York political figures, including Paterson, Independent Mayor Michael Bloomberg, seeking reelection in November on the Republican line, out lesbian City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, a Chelsea Democrat, and Chelsea State Senator Thomas Duane and Upper West Side Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell, two out gay Democrats who are the marriage bill's lead sponsors.

Other speakers included Rory O'Malley of Broadway Impact, Cathy Marino-Thomas and Ron Zacchi of Marriage Equality/ New York, and Alan Van Capelle, the executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, New York's LGBT lobby group.

As was the case with the Diaz rally, pro-marriage equality demonstrators filled several blocks of penned-in areas adjacent to the speaker's podium.

According to Anthony Hayes, the Northeast regional field organizer for the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign (HRC), "the event was 100-percent focused on giving New Yorkers one simple, easy way to contact their senator. We wanted to make it easier than voting for 'American Idol.'"

Those in attendance were directed to visit broadwayimpact.com, which provides straightforward access to identifying a voter's state senator and contacting them through ESPA's website (prideagenda.org).

In putting together the event, Hayes explained, the primary political outreach was made to the governor, the mayor, Quinn, Duane, and O'Donnell. Specific calls were not made to other state senators. Duane was joined by his colleagues Liz Krueger and Eric Schneiderman, two Manhattan Democrats, but Smith, the Senate's majority leader, was not there. Smith also skipped an April 17 Manhattan press conference at which the governor, flanked by several dozen top Democratic leaders in the state, introduced his gay marriage measure.

At that time and on several other recent occasions, Paterson urged the Senate to schedule a vote on marriage equality prior to its June adjournment, whether or not it was clear that the votes for passage were there. Smith, in contrast, has repeatedly said he would allow floor consideration only when the votes are there, which he has said they are not. However, on May 12, when the Assembly moved the bill, the majority leader issued his most upbeat statement to date on the issue, saying, "The momentum is shifting -- marriage equality will be a reality in New York."

At least some political leaders who wished to speak, including city Comptroller William Thompson, who is seeking the Democratic mayoral nomination to run against Bloomberg, were turned down. Hayes explained that given a two-hour police permit, the organizers were concerned about fitting in all the performers and speakers, and declined requests from a number of elected officials, "who all wanted to speak."

Asked whether Smith's presence at the rally would have been helpful, ESPA's Van Capelle said, "Anyone who was there felt the sense of solidarity that existed. I wish that crowd had had the opportunity to hear Senator Smith's support for and commitment to marriage equality, which he has stated on many occasions."

Van Capelle suggested that the gap between the governor's call for a vote and Smith's position that passage should be assured prior to bringing it to the floor might evaporate in practice.

"I think there is an ability to have 32 named votes still," he told Gay City News. "There will be some people who will not be able to make up their minds until they have to vote. The landscape is still significantly larger than we thought it would be at this stage. There are more gettables out there than are being talked about."

A number of Democratic colleagues of Diaz's have said that they also oppose Paterson's bill, but, aside from the Bronx senator, who is a Pentecostal minister and has been at odds with the LGBT community dating all the way back to the time the Gay Games were held in New York in 1994, Van Capelle said, "I don't think we should stop talking to any Democrat, regardless of whether they've stated their position. Anyone who identifies five or six people holding this up is misreading the political terrain."

The Pride Agenda -- like Duane and Paterson -- has always made clear that it is lobbying Republican senators as well. According to Daily News political reporter Liz Benjamin, Duane, on May 14, stated that a Republican colleague of his is ready to publicly announce his support for marriage equality.