Celebrate! Great day in NY state!
If you click here, you can see a terrific slideshow of the marriage celebrations going on in NYC at the City Clerks Office. Lots of happy couples here. Thanks to Tony Adams for posting his fantastic pics.
Marriage equality a reality in NY state
With a rainbow-lit Niagara Falls as a backdrop early Sunday, Lambert, 54, and Rudd, 53, were among the first gay couples to tie the knot with the blessing of the state, which last month became the sixth and largest to sanction gay marriage. Couples in Albany, Hudson and Long Island also exchanged vows just after midnight Saturday, kicking off what was expected to be a Sunday packed with weddings.
Lambert and Rudd, grandmothers with 12 grandchildren between them, have been together for more than a decade and had long been fighting for the right to marry.
The women, both of Buffalo, smiled broadly as they exchanged traditional marriage vows, promising to love and cherish each other in sickness and in health. The crowd of several hundred people cheered as they were pronounced married and shared their first kiss.
NYC to Hold Lottery for Gay Marriage Sunday
From the Wall Street Journal: Fearing demand for same-sex weddings will be too great for the City Clerk’s Office to handle this Sunday, city officials have announced a lottery for weddings on the first day that gay couples can legally wed in the state.
Officials said couples could be stuck waiting in long lines all day and, though the city has added extra clerks for Sunday, ultimately would not be able to get married because of the high volume.
The lottery will guarantee 764 couples — either opposite- or same-sex — access to marry at one of the City Clerk’s five offices Sunday.
The 764 couples to marry would be the largest number of marriages on any single day in city history.
As of Tuesday morning, the City Clerk’s Office had received 2,661 online applications since July 5th; the Clerk has estimated that 1,728 are from same-sex couples. Officials said the data collected by the city showed 54% of the online applicants planned to visit the clerk’s offices on Sunday in pursuit of a marriage license, and that 50% planned to marry that day.
According to the city, couples wishing to marry on Sunday may register for the lottery by going to the City Clerk’s website or by calling 311. The lottery will open for entries at noon on Tuesday and will close to entries at noon on Thursday.
The city will hold a separate lottery for each of the City Clerk’s five borough offices and lottery applicants must specify only one office where they wish to marry.
Winners of the lottery will be notified via e-mail or phone on Friday by noon. Officials urged couples who win a place in the lottery to arrive in the morning; couples must arrive no later than 3:45 p.m. Sunday.
“We’ve done our homework, and it’s clear that the number of couples who want to marry on Sunday is more than the City Clerk’s offices could possibly handle,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement. “And the last thing we want is for couples to wait on line for hours and hours, only to walk away upset on what was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives.”
“The fairest way to determine who gets the chance to wed on Sunday and ensure everyone can properly plan for their own big day is through an even-handed lottery system,” he added. “Nobody puts on big events like New York and we will be ready on Sunday for what will no doubt be an historic and unforgettable moment.”
Couples who have not been selected in the lottery can get married later in the week.
Christine Quinn, the city’s first female and openly gay council speaker, said, “This efficient and effective process for managing the first day of marriage equality in the five boroughs will maximize the excitement and dignity for all.”
Judges lining up for marriage equality’s 1st day in NY
From the New York Times: As one of several dozen judges across the state who have volunteered to play an official role in marriage equality’s first day in New York state, Justice Thomas Raffaele is part of one of the most unusual judicial mobilizations in years. From Buffalo to the Bronx and pretty much everywhere else in New York, judges are signing up for rare Sunday duty.
If same-sex couples want to marry that Sunday, only judges would have the authority to dispense with the 24-hour waiting period required by law. And those judges could then officiate on the spot.
Another of the volunteer judges, Sherry Klein Heitler of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, said she was expecting something of a party at the city clerk’s office. “I think there will be a lot of people,” Justice Heitler said. “I think there will be a lot of emotion. I think there will be a lot of happy tears.”
Judge Richard B. Meyer of Essex County Court in Elizabethtown, N.Y., said he felt an obligation to help any couple trying to take advantage of their newly minted right.
“I think it’s important,” Judge Meyer said, “that people who have been waiting a long time to be married and who are anxious to do it have access to someone who is able to perform the ceremony on their time frame.”
In Rochester, Judge Joan S. Kohout said she had been thinking of the legal changes during her 23 years on the bench that enabled same-sex couples to adopt. As ideas about family have changed, she said, the families passing through her court have changed.
Judge Kohout volunteered, she said, because she saw the new marriage law as a further evolution. “I’m a Family Court judge — I’m a judge for families — and I saw this as a way for me to do my job,” she said.
New approach to marriage equality in Maryland
A coalition of organizations will announce a new campaign to win marriage equality in Maryland at a news conference today.
The list of groups involved in the new effort includes Equality Maryland, Progressive Maryland, the ACLU, Human Rights Campaign, Freedom to Marry, Service Employees International Union and more.
The goal of the new effort is to pass a marriage equality bill in the 2012 Maryland legislative session, which begins in January. A marriage equality bill died in the House of Delegates in March after passing the Senate. Gov. Martin O’Malley has pledged to sign such a bill.
Read more at the Washington Blade.
A little boy ‘gets’ the idea of marriage equality
There. It’s that easy.
Any questions?
🙂
“Vegas! The Show” celebrates marriage equality
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| Reva Rice, star of “Vegas! The Show” at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas |
Las Vegas’ hottest, new stage production, VEGAS! The Show, continues its ongoing support of gay rights by offering FREE show tickets to same-sex married couples through the month of July.
The offer is in response to New York becoming the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage, joining Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and the District of Columbia.
LGBT married couples who show proof of their union at the Saxe Theater box office will receive two free tickets to the show.
Theater owner, David Saxe, hopes this gesture will inspire other business owners across the nation to throw their support behind the movement. “The New York state Senate vote was a huge milestone, affording gay and lesbian couples the rights, dignity and respect that come with marriage. No matter how you look at it, this is a ‘human’ rights victory and it deserves to be commemorated.”
“VEGAS! The Show” takes the stage, twice nightly, at the Saxe Theater inside Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. Starring Broadway veteran Reva Rice (Fosse, Starlight Express) and a cast of more than 40 singers, dancers, showgirls and a live big band orchestra, this large-scale production takes the audience on a journey through the “glory days” of Las Vegas when The Rat Pack ruled, glamorous showgirls filled the stage and Elvis was the king of Vegas.
For more information about VEGAS! The Show, please log onto www.vegastheshow.com or call 702.318.6490.
If you plan to celebrate your marriage equality this month, get to Las Vegas and “Vegas! The Show.”
Brad Pitt applauds marriage equality in NY state
Brad Pitt, exclusively to PEOPLE, on the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in New York State.
“It is encouraging that New York has joined the movement to grant equal marriage rights to its citizens. But it is each American’s Constitutional right to marry the person they love, no matter what state they inhabit. No state should decide who can marry and who cannot. Thanks to the tireless work of so many, someday soon this discrimination will end and every American will be able to enjoy their equal right to marriage.”
The star and marriage-equality activist, 47, once said in an interview that he and Angelina Jolie would not get married until everyone had the same right.
NY Gov. Cuomo at NYC Gay Pride
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| NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo at NYC Gay Pride after passing marriage equality in NY state |
Now THIS is what a “fierce advocate” looks like.
Just in case a certain President is taking notes…
Via the New York Daily News: As the gay pride parade marched through the streets of New York City on Sunday, participants cheered the governor with signs bellowing “Thank you, Governor Cuomo.”
Two days after New York’s senate voted 33-29 to legalize gay marriage, the annual parade became the epicenter for the equality celebration, embodying this year’s theme: “Proud and Powerful.”
Half a million people were expected to take to the streets.
The Marriage Equality Act was passed in the state Senate on Friday evening, and signed into law by Cuomo at 11:55 p.m. ET, less than 2 hours after the vote. The law takes effect in 30 days.
Video: THE moment marriage equality passed in NY state
THE moment marriage equality passed in NY state!
Listen to the crowd in the gallery lose their minds!