New York Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

This is monumental.
Earth shattering.
Game changing.

There really aren’t labels too overblown that can be attached to what happened when finally, after two painful weeks of wrangling and two years after a stinging defeat, Friday evening, the New York Senate passed same-sex marriage equality.

Governor Andrew Cuomo, a staunch supporter of gay rights who threw his whole weight behind the passage of the bill, signed it later that same night, starting the clock on the 30 days before it officially becomes law.

The legalization of gay marriage also came right before the weekend celebrations for Gay Pride in the state where the gay rights movement was born with the Stonewall riots.

New York thus became the sixth and largest state in the country to end marriage discrimination. With this victory in New York, the number of Americans who live in states with the freedom to marry has now doubled.

A few pictures from that magical night from The New York Times.

The Governor’s signing:

The celebration in the Village and across New York:

Two final important considerations that come out of this:

1. Our opponents don’t really have a way of undoing this victory like they’ve done in California and Maine.  New York state doesn’t have a ‘voter initiative’ process to undo legislation or pass constitutional amendments like other states have, so trying to pass a repeal bill would be the only way, and that would never pass the state’s lower chamber or be signed into law by the governor, who is so popular right now, his reelection is all but guaranteed.
2. The number of couples who will be legally married stemming from a state as populous and important as New York will shine a glaringly bright spotlight on the unfairness and clear unconstitutionality of the federal DOMA, thereby hastening –hopefully- its demise.