Long Island couple Christine Tulley and Rachel Baker traveled to downtown Manhattan at dawn on Sunday morning for reasons more sentimental than practical. Ms. Baker, a TriBeCa native, and Ms. Tulley showed up at the courthouse to be married on July 24, 2011, the first day New York State’s Marriage Equality Law went into effect. Read More
On Friday afternoon, State Senator Diane Savino was still plotting exactly how best to help same-sex marriage couples celebrate their big day on Staten Island.
“Assemblyman [Matthew] Titone and I are going to be there handing out cupcakes and champagne — or perhaps mimosas, or bellinis,” Savino said.
By the time The Observer arrived at Staten Island’s Borough Hall at 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, Titone and Savino had come and gone, and the procession of couples seeking marriage ceremonies and licenses had largely tapered off.
The majority of the 38 couples who had registered to marry there had long since come through, leaving plenty of room for stragglers to meander into Borough Hall, sometimes in clothing more fit for a backyard cookout than a wedding ceremony. “That’s the beauty of the entire thing,” commented a passerby on Stuyvesant Street. “They can just hop off their bicycles and come and get married, no red tape, nothing.” Read More
Last Friday night, a group of friends gathered at a bar in Bed-Stuy. There was laughter, there were stories, and there was wine. “A lot of wine,” recounts local writer and director Bex Schwartz, laughing. And then someone checked his or her phone.
“We all went crazy when we got the text. We were all just Read More
Republicans will meet later today to decide whether the State Senate will have a vote on same-sex marriage, which currently is one vote shy of the 32 votes needed to pass.
“We’re going to conference the language of the amendments,” said Republican Senate Leader Dean Skelos after meeting privately with Governor Cuomo.
Asked if he was obligated to present the vote during business hours, instead of late at night when, presumably, less public attention would be paid to the issue, Skelos demurred.
“I’m not going to work under time constraints,” he said, predicting the 32-member GOP conference would be “lengthy.”
For weeks, Cuomo has met privately with a handful of Republican Senators who wanted to see greater protections for religiously affiliated organizations who do not want to recognize or do business with gay couples. Cuomo has said he has faced “no obstacles” with Republicans.
Chelsea Clinton joined advocates this evening in Manhattan to mark the first week of a phonebank campaign to legalize same-sex marriage, and said she hopes that New York will pass a same-sex marriage bill by her anniversary this July.
“As someone who got married last year, it was certainly the happiest day of my life Read More
Former President Clinton comes out in support of same-sex marriage, a sign of how far into the mainstream the LGBT agenda has become. (It was Clinton, after all, who signed things like the Defense of Marriage Act, which allows states the right to refuse same-sex marriages performed in other states; and Don’t Ask Don’t Read More
Same-sex marriage advocates, who have been coordinating their efforts with Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, announced they’re bringing their Republican counterparts into the fold.
“We are thrilled to have Log Cabin Republicans join the coalition” said Brian Ellner of the Human Rights Campaign.
What impact they will have on Republicans–many of whom voted against Read More
I’ve noted before the different approaches same-sex marriage advocates have taken in their latest push before Cuomo’s June deadline.
The Human Rights Campaign has stayed pretty positive with their onslaught of videos featuring recognizable (celebrities?) people. But their latest video features actor Sam Waterston, who injects some tough talk (albeit, with rosy cheeks Read More
Same-sex marriage advocates recently protested outside Governor Cuomo’s midtown office. As Nick Confessore noted about another recent marriage protest, the target of their rage is somewhat unclear, since Cuomo supports same-sex marriage, and wants to sign it into law by June.
As they say, with friends like these…
Taking a notably different Read More
HRC speaks to the law-and-order crowd with thier latest video, featuring Bill Bratton, the former NYPD Commissioner, and his wife.
“Marriage equality, under the law, will make families safer and stronger,” he says.
