Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith understands that religious opinions about marriage should have no bearing on how the government approaches the issue of marriage equality.

“I look at it as a legal matter… People being together, you know, has no implication on most other people’s lives,” he said. “I think people deserve to be with who they want to be with. Who am I to dictate?”

No religion should have a monopoly on the institutions of government or on the right to marry.