NEW YORK, NY July 07, 2006 —Now that New York's high court has rebuffed efforts to legalize gay marriage, supporters of the law-change are directing their attention from the judiciary to the state legislature and elsewhere. WNYC's Fred Mogul has more.

Elected officials -- and political candidates -- are cautiously staking out responses to the Court of Appeals' landmark ruling. Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, who has said he favors some civil union provisions, produced only a two-sentence statement -- one praising the ruling and the other re-stating his belief that marriage should occur between men and women.

There's also a chance that the Senate could lose or narrow its Republican majority in upcoming elections, but even in the overwhelmingly Democratic Assembly things are uncertain. Speaker Sheldon Silver in the past has said he would wait to see what the courts would do. Yesterday, he said he had not read the decision yet and would need to caucus his fellow Democrats before suggesting a legislative strategy.

Governor Pataki praised the court for transferring the issue to legislators, but said if they tried to change the law, he wouldn't sign it. Standing next to Pataki at a World Trade Center site press conference, Mayor Bloomberg said he supports same-sex marriage in principle but that it's now up to the Legislature to decide. At the Gay Pride Parade two weeks ago, he pledged to lobby actively -- but he was less committal about that yesterday.

And Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who led the state's appeal against gay marriage, yesterday said that if elected governor he would propose legislation to change the law. Thomas Suozzi and John Faso, his Democratic and Republican opponents, both oppose same-sex marriage.