Governor David Paterson bolstered his support of the Marriage Equality Program bill Thursday, which would legalize same-sex marriage and give those couples the same legal status on issues like property ownership and insurance coverage.

Paterson reintroduced the same legislation that died in 2007, after it was passed by the State Assembly.

He was surrounded by city leaders, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Christine Quinn, the openly gay City Council speaker, and other state and union leaders to say the bill is long overdue.

"This is a civil rights issue," Paterson said from the news conference at his office on Manhattan's East Side. "For too long, gay and lesbian New Yorkers, we have pretended that we have the same rights as their neighbors and their friends. For too long we have allowed the perception that gay and lesbian New Yorkers have the same privileges as their straight brothers and sisters or mothers and fathers. That is not the case."

Advocates say gay and lesbian couples are denied 1,350 civil protections, including health care and pension rights, because they cannot marry.

"New Yorkers pride themselves on their ability to practice their individual freedoms. And that includes the right to say what you believe, to practice your own faith, and to love whomever you want," said Bloomberg. "And it's time for this state to take the next step and ensure the rights of same-sex couples to marry whom they want."

The legislation will face opposition from both the narrowly Democratic-controlled New York State Senate and the new archbishop.

The governor, who is a long-time advocate of gay marriage, is hoping to capture some of the momentum provided by other states that have passed legislation recently.

He framed the issue in historic terms, drawing a parallel between the fight to eliminate slavery in the 1990s to the current effort to allow gay marriage.

"I understand the trepidation and anxiety that people are feeling today. Rights should not be stifled by fear," Paterson said to cheers. "What we should understand that silence should not be a response to injustice. There is no gain without struggle. "

Archbishop Timothy Dolan vowed Wednesday to work to defeat the legislation, saying he would not shy away from the controversial topic.

"I would have things to say about that, you bet," Dolan said. "And of course, I wouldn't be making them up. It's pretty well articulated -- the teaching in the church, from the Holy See in Rome, from the Conference of Catholic Bishops. We've expressed our position on that. You could expect me to articulate that with all the clarity and credibility that I can muster."

The governor said that openly-gay State Senator Tom Duane and openly-gay State Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell will lead the fight to get the bill passed.

"I do not want a pew in your church. I do not want a seat in your synagogue," said O'Donnell. "What I want is a piece of paper that is issued by my government that many of you have had, some of you have had it two or three times. I was born in this state. I was raised in this state. I was educated in this state. I'm an elected official in this state. I pay taxes in this state. I want a piece of paper from my government just like the rest of you."

Following the governor's announcement, the Conservative Party released a statement opposing the proposal as a "deliberate attack on the sanctity of marriage."

The statement goes on to say Paterson's proposal is a desperate attempt to raise money for his 2010 campaign and up his approval rating.

Other lawmakers are also speaking out against the bill, including State Senator Ruben Diaz.

Diaz, an evangelical pastor, met with religious leaders Thursday to discuss how to block the bill.

He said the introduction of the bill will end up helping Republicans.

"He's taking the whole gay marriage issue down with him and he's taking the majority of Democrats in the Senate down with him," charged Diaz.

Diaz went on to say that Paterson should not run for office in 2010 and instead step aside and allow Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to run in order to keep the Democratic majority in the Senate.

Meanwhile, Mayor Bloomberg found himself on the defense after he brought Thursday's marriage equality news conference to a halt for more than a minute after an electronic recording device went off.

Bloomberg: "Something's playing, can we just stop this and we'll start again?"

Christine Quinn: "He's disabled."

Bloomberg: "I understand that. He can still turn it off. This is a little too important for playing music. Let me start again, as soon as we can do this."

The reporter, Michael Harris, is also a disability rights activist. He said a photographer bumped into his tape recorder, causing it to go off.

After the news conference, Bloomberg acknowledged his strong reaction, but refused to apologize.

"This issue today is the most serious issue I think from a social point of view facing the state at the moment. And I don't think we need the distraction and we're going to stop and wait until somebody finds what their tape recorder is and fix it. It has nothing to do with anything else other than that," said Bloomberg.

Harris says he thinks the mayor was obnoxious and owes him an apology.

"The only thing I would really like to see out of this," Harris said, "is for the mayor to recognize that his response to what was an accident, and one that I acted very expeditiously to rectify, and really wasn't my fault, to realize that and to simply apologize and move on."