New York this week celebrates the first
anniversary of legal gay marriage in the state.
New York's gay marriage law took effect
on July 24, 2011. A record 659 couples married in New York City on
that day as New York became the sixth – and most populous – state
to legalize gay nuptials. Celebrations began at midnight in several
cities with mayors officiating over weddings at the earliest possible
moment.
Couples now celebrating their first
anniversaries say they married for mostly one reason.
“The prime reason was love. That's
the name of the game,” Phyllis Siegel, 77, who along with her
partner, Connie Kopelov, 86, were the first to marry under the law in
New York City, told the Daily
News.
“We're more in love now than we were
before,” said Carol Anastasio, 50, who last year married Mimi
Brown, her partner of more than 20 years. “It's hard to put into
words, but there's this intimate and closer feeling – and we felt
pretty intimate to start with.”
Marriage equality in New York “created
a ripple effect around the country,” said Lynn Faria of the Empire
State Pride Agenda. “Public opinion only goes one way on this
issue.”
“People realize the sky is not
falling. Nothing bad is happening. What's happening is people who
are in loving, committed relationships are being treated equally,”
said Glennda Testone, executive director of the LGBT Community
Center.