• 29
  • July
    2011

By 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, July 24, the first same-sex couple said "I do," as New York became the sixth state in the nation to recognize gay marriage.

Across the state, hundreds of domestic partners stood in line at state clerks' offices for their number to be called so their long-awaited weddings could begin. Typically, couples have to wait 24 hours after receiving their marriage license before they can be married. Judges in New York City and other areas of the state waived the mandatory 24-hour waiting period so that many of same-sex couples could exchange "I dos" minutes after getting their marriage licenses.

The first couple to marry in Manhattan had been together for over 23 years. After the ceremony the 77 year old and 85 year old raised their arms in celebration, holding out their white and blue marriage certificate. The 77-year-old woman said, "It's mind-boggling. The fact that's it's happening to us -- that we are finally legal and can do this like everyone else."

A couple on Long Island had been together for 15 years when they tied the knot on Sunday in front of their 8-year-old daughter. One of the women, an attorney in Queens, said, "We've been waiting for this day. And now we're waiting for the day it becomes legal on a federal level."

Another couple in Buffalo was pleasantly surprised when they were told they could marry Sunday afternoon. They had stood in line, planning only to get a license, and then wed a few days later. But because they married in Toronto six years ago, they would were told they could be married that day.

In New York City, believing that over 2,500 couples would want to marry on Sunday, officials established a lottery system so that the first 800 could be married the same day. By the time the lottery was over, only 823 couples had signed up, so the city decided to perform the wedding ceremonies for all of them on Sunday.

It is believed that at least 1,200 marriage licenses were issued to same-sex couples throughout the state within the first two days of the law being enacted.

Source: LoHud.com, "Couples wed on 1st day gay marriage is legal in New York," 7/24/11.