Same-Sex Marriage Passes in New York, 33-29! We Won a Thing!

After eons of deliberations, the same-sex marriage bill came to a vote on the Senate floor tonight with extensive provisions to protect religious institutions who don’t wanna marry gay people from ever being punished in any way whatsoever forever/always/’til the end of time. Seriously. If your church won’t marry you, you flaming homosexual, you are not allowed to get upset about it. Is everyone okay with that? Okay. Moving on.

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE WON A THING

Senator Stephen M. Saland opened the ceremonies and explained the new provisions as outlined in today’s amendment. Saland was talking like a sane, rational, tolerant, open-hearted person. He’d been a fence-sitter all this time. He commended the quality of the amendment and also spoke about the importance of tolerance and respect.

Was he the rumored 32nd vote secured last night? Or is Saland not the only undecided vote who decided to join Team Gay?

When the votes were tallied the score was overwhelmingly and unexpectedly in our favor: 36 – 26.

After the announcement we, like the HRC, The Huffington Post, OUT Magazine and 600,000 other people, yelled in jubilation that we’d legalized same sex marriage. That wasn’t the case, actually, we still needed a full vote on the bill itself (not just on the acceptability of the new amendment) on the Senate Floor.

But we’re happy already because we’ve got this shit in the bag. Now we can sit back and watch the show. This is the part of a basketball game where they start going for wild three-pointers and acrobatic slam dunks just for funsies, since there’s no way they won’t finish this one for the win.

On the senate floor, we won 33 to 29.

This isn’t just great news for New York — these religious exceptions can very well serve as a model to those trying to pass same-sex marriage amendments in their states.

Republican Senator Voting for Marriage Equality - 6.24.2011

Following Ruben Diaz’s psychotic freakout, Thomas Duane and Carl Kruger made passionate speeches about gay rights and equality and things of that nature.

And we did.

I’ll write a fuller article on this but we all need to celebrate right now. The Governor will sign the bill and in 30 days marriages will begin.

If you’re in New York you have to send us your photos!!!

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Riese

Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3266 articles for us.

194 Comments

  1. For a second I thought “Whelp, another loss, dang” but then! then we won! I’m going to listen to Queen and run around my apartment with my roommate’s cats

  5. So glad I live in NYC this weekend. It’s going to be a PAAAAAAARTY.

    Anyone else want to celebrate with me?

    • NYC PRIDE FTW! This weekend. Omg. Hate I can’t be there tonight. But 2morrorw and Sunday omg. Off the chain. Called my boss earlier and said no way was I working Sunday anymore. He agreed. Yay for nice str8 people. Going to siren and stiletto, who knows where else.

      Cubbyhole is going to be like a jammed P.O. box. Not even gonna try.

      • NYC Pride is gonna be INTENSE. Were my current residence three thousand miles north and east I’d run into the streets wearing my tiniest dress and my biggest smile.

        (I’ll be over here, sniffling bitterly into my Guinness until DOMA’s repealed. There may be a lot of Guinness in the interim, to be frank.)

  6. It was just a vote on the religious exemption amendment, but the HRC got a little bit overly excited and tweeted that the whole thing passed…which isn’t true.

  8. Oh man, I should definitely get dressed and go out to celebrate. I’m so happy you guys! I love you all!

  12. aaaaaahhhhh I am going to sit here VERY STRESSED until it actually officially happens (unless it has and I am misunderstanding something???) even though it seems like it definitely is going to happen, because, like, the Bush/Gore thing permanently damaged my psyche and I have a hard time trusting that good things can actually happen but maybe they can?
    Maybe.

  13. Thanks for jumping the gun + posting the live link in the other post. I am watching live now. Government in action is riveting when you care about it! I don’t know if my actual senator voted yet, but Mark Grislanti’s speech was great.

  14. This live stream really is fascinating (minus all the interruptions). I like listening to all the different speeches.

    All the different accents are quite fun too.

    They’re voting on the marriage bill now right? Anybody have the confirmed votes for yes and no? The 36-26 vote is just for the amendment right?

      • The legalize isn’t easy for me to read but it looks like religious discrimination is now protected?

        NOTWITHSTANDING ANY STATE, LOCAL OR MUNICIPAL LAW OR RULE, REGULATION, ORDINANCE, OR OTHER PROVISION OF LAW TO THE CONTRARY, NOTHING IN THIS ARTICLE SHALL LIMIT OR DIMINISH THE RIGHT, PURSUANT TO SUBDIVISION ELEVEN OF SECTION TWO HUNDRED NINETY-SIX OF THE EXECUTIVE LAW, OF ANY RELIGIOUS OR DENOMINATIONAL INSTITUTION OR ORGANIZATION, OR ANY ORGANIZATION OPERATED FOR CHARITABLE OR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES, WHICH IS OPERATED, SUPERVISED OR CONTROLLED BY OR IN CONNECTION WITH A RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION, TO LIMIT EMPLOYMENT OR SALES OR RENTAL OF HOUSING ACCOMMODATIONS OR ADMISSION TO OR GIVE PREFERENCE TO PERSONS OF THE SAME RELIGION OR DENOMINATION OR FROM TAKING SUCH ACTION AS IS CALCULATED BY SUCH ORGANIZATION TO PROMOTE THE RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES FOR WHICH IT IS ESTABLISHED OR MAINTAINED.

        • I’m not bothered by that. When a couple gets married in a religious institution, the only thing they are getting in the church that they can’t get in city hall is a the ceremony. The Catholic church also doesn’t allow women to be priests. We can argue whether that’s right or wrong, but I think letting religious groups opt out of performing marriage ceremonies is entirely consistent with their role.

        • Really, that’s not anything *that* new. Like, if a Catholic church doesn’t want to marry a Jewish couple, they don’t *have* to. Why they felt the need to codify that, I don’t know… well, okay, I do, but I wish it wasn’t necessary!

      • Still the ability to travel to NY and get married is a step forward.(still learning to see the bright side *embarrassed*)

        • No embarrassment!

          I think that clause just puts into effect what should already be fact: separation of church and state….

  17. I seriously don’t even know what to do with myself right now. I cried while Duane was speaking, I somersaulted when Grisanti did his thang. D:

    Diaz? Diaz just wouldn’t shut it!

    Kruger just spoke and I am elated with joy. And now…I believe it has officially passed. 33 – 29!

  30. Awww yeah! That’s so great. Good for all the NYer.

    Hope that my country go too on the way of equality

  32. I’m glad Brooklyn represented last. And the senators were so cute with their fist pumping!

  33. WE WIN THE UNIVERSE! Crying from happiness right now.

    Pride is going to be AWESOME this year!

  35. 33-29! *fist pumps 33 times*

    My state senator voted against it. What a fuckface. Even after I emailed him and asked him nicely to vote for equality! I will be sure to register my disappointment. That fucker Sen. Ball, the douche asking for help to decide how to vote on Twitter, voted against. Weak. Maybe I should tweet him my disappointment too. I did just send a thank you email to Grisanti though. Not sure who else crossed the aisle to do this, but politically it had to be tough. These people voted for what they thought was right, not what they thought would get them re-elected. That’s important. They’ve risked a little to do right by us!

    • Is Senator Ball your Senator? Ball is the Senator for my hometown county. He’s a dickwad, and I’m kind of ashamed to be associated with him in any way at all. I said so on facebook, so it’s totally true.

      • Ball is not my senator. I just think it’s super rude to say you’re going to vote based on feedback, when like 99% of what I saw was pro-vote. It seems like maybe it was about playing a game for some self-promotion.

        • He has a very long history of that sort of self-promotion, so I’m honestly not surprised in the least.

          • Lemme just take an official record on what you think so we can be clear in my choice to knowingly oppose your will.

  38. Rachel Maddow said this vote doubles the number of people in the US for whom same-sex marriage rights are a reality. And NY is a state that has no residency requirement for obtaining a marriage license.

  41. hm. i’m a bit confused by other sources claiming 33:29, buuuuut still: FUCKYEAH. and I’m not even from the states.

    • There was first a vote on an amendment to the bill that got 36 yes votes. I guess some senators did not plan to vote for final passage, but wanted to ensure that if it did pass, the religious protections amendment was in the bill. The final passage vote had 33 yes, so three people who voted for the amendment did not vote for the actual bill.

    • 2012. THERE WILL BE A RECKONING.

      A very nice reckoning, with hugs and daiquiris and quesadillas. One hopes, anyway.

    • Also one of my immediate thoughts. If we just border the country with legalization, maybe all the states in the middle will feel intimidated/logic-ed into making the correct decision.

  43. I’m so glad that my roommate is not here to see me freaking out. I can at least pretend to still have some dignity…

  45. Fuck yeah. FUCK YEAH. I’m sorry, but it’s been a little embarrassing that NY was not the FIRST state to pass this. I know that LI exists and western NY exist but STILL we should have passed this shit forever ago.

    But whatever. I will now celebrate instead of packing to move somewhere where I have fewer rights. Fuck.

    • I agree. Iowa got its act together years ago. But this is still great. The NY Appeals Court (NY’s highest court, I guess a “supreme” court, if you will) can suck it for ruling against same-sex marriage in 2007.

  46. DRINKING IN CELEBRATION, HONESTLY.

    And I did a happy dance. Only 44 more to go! (lolsob)

  49. THE GAY MAN IN FRONT OF US JUST GOT DOWN ON ONE KNEE AND PROPOSED TO HIS BOYFRIEND!! I HAVE NEVER SEEN SO MANY CRYING HAPPY GAYS IN ONE PLACE BEFORE!! THE BEST PLACE AND TIME TO BE A GAY PERSON RIGHT NOW IS IN THESE FIFTY SQUARE FEET OF MARBLE OUTSIDE OF THE SENATE CHAMBERS!! THERE IS AN UNBELIEVABLE AMOUNT OF MAKING OUT AND CRYING AND HUGGING AND KISSING AND HAND-HOLDING AND I CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT I AM WITNESSING!!

    THANKS FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT AUTOSTRADDLE, NEW YORK LOVES YOU FOR IT!! GAY GENERAL STORE OPEN 24 HOURS TONIGHT, THERE IS NO WAY ANY OF US ARE SLEEPING!!

    ALSO THIS IS NOT MY PHONE, IF ANYONE KNOWS WHOSE PHONE THIS IS PLEASE COME FIND ME, I CAN’T TURN OFF THE CAPSLOCK AND I’M USING IT TO PLAY TEGAN AND SARA RIGHT NOW.

  51. Congratulations New York! So anyone wanna get married and then devalue the institution of marriage by getting divorced, just like straight people do?

    • For real though, who wants to be my wife? I am half Asian and half white. Mixed people are trendy these days, so hop on the bandwagon and grab me while I am still available. I can cook, am independent, and have a diverse array of interests. Recently, I have been described as “cute”, “adorable”, and “okay”.

      I’ll be at Pride on Sunday wearing a tank top, cut off shorts, and a rainbow belt. Come say hi!

    • Apparently there are a couple of us here for whom Ball is their Senator. Douchetastic, that man is.

  56. “New York today, tomorrow the world!” – High School Musical 3
    (via @ KeenanBlogger on Twitter)

    • totally! If we can make it there, we can make it anywhere – it’s up to you, New York, New York!

  59. Wooooo!!!!

    I wish I was in NYC for Pride this weekend. Pretty amazing that this happened so close to the anniversary of Stonewall…42 years.

  63. Just heard this amazing news while driving home. Started screaming FINALLY! YES! alone in my empty car.

  65. i want to be at pride so much this weekend. im so excited i dont know what to do with myself. NO ONE UNDERSTANDS! (except you guys, i mean my friends who are like, oh thats cool)

  66. YAY HOME STATE THANK YOU FOR TELLING ME I AM A LEGIT PERSON I CAN’T WAIT FOR PRIDE WHO ELSE IS GOING ON SUNDAY?! i’ll be wearing a grey tank top, an orange lacy bra and rainbow suspenders, find me and make out with me.
    also, my mom was watching the live feed with me and after it passed she said “can you be in a good mood now for a couple of weeks, please?” guess i’ve been kind of cranky about this lately…. :P

    • also a bunch of my straight friends are texting me like “gay marriage in new york!” and i’m like “who do you think i am, i’ve been googling updates on this shit every hour for a week straight”

    • same re: updates etc. I think a lot of people on facebook likely have me on “hide” now. lol.

      I will be at many events sat/sun, most obvs the parade.

      I’m too overwhelmed atm to even think of what to wear. maybe nothing but sun tan lotion and a bathing suit even if the weather sucks!

      *wish I had an uber cool auto-straddle this cut up racerback to wear*

  67. you know what this REALLY means, right? all you guys in new york better make some room for a new flat screen tv cause when the anarchy starts, you gotta get on that shit quick.
    watching my brothers friends get tvs, computers, shoes etc.,etc…..all i know is cover your face(or any identifiable marks), it needs to be a well coordinated thing with people you trust, gotta have a plan,know what you want and make it quick, son! Hide your wife, hide your kids, errrrrbody! ANARCHY!

    gonna go get drunk now.

  68. I don’t live here but I am here and why am I not celebrating but my heart is flipping somersaults.

  70. Wooooooo!!! Finally!!! I love when we win things!!

    I totally agree this might be a Pride gift from gay Santa.

    Do unicorns pull his rainbow sleigh? Because I really could use that in my life :D

  72. We just took shots of whipped cream vodka and are now about to watch some Arrested Development. Celebration, b*tches!

  75. Cangrats to New York!!! It’s been a long time coming. So much love! :D

    Now we just need Maine and Rhode Island and the Northeast will be sewn up.

  76. IN NEW YOOOOORK, CONCRETE JUNGLE WHERE GAYS CAN MARRY, THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAAAAAN’T DO!

  77. IMMA HOMO-SEX-U-AL(L) (GET-IT? HAY-YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!)*

    I’M TOO HAPPY I’M GOING TO EXPLODE!

    *TO HAPPY/GAY TO FUNCTION!!!!!!!

    • Oh my god, I am supposed to be driving somewhere right now, and it’s like, you want me to drive? You want me to get behind the wheel of a car and operate it competently???????

      I can’t even put on my left shoe. If ever I have been too gay to function, this is it.

      • What about your right shoe? Maybe that one’s straighter.
        I love this comment so much.

        • I never actually made it out of my apartment last night. My right shoe is apparently way gayer than my left. And I think my car keys ran away to NY to get married because I still can’t find them.

  78. HOLY SHIT WE WON SOMETHING I NEVER WIN ANYTHING (ok maybe bingo, once)

    This is amazing, if only California was so lucky.

  79. I had to suppress my squeals of joy because I’m in Tokyo and excessive emotions are frowned upon here or something but but butYEEEEEEAAAYYY!!! Now Carly and Robin can get married!!!!!

  80. I REALLY REALLY want to be there for Pride on Sunday but everyone I know is busy. Does anyone want to meet up or need a ride from the Philly area? I need tobe this happy in NYC with other happy people.

    OMFG yay.

  81. YES! NY FTW.

    I knew I should have gone to NYC this weekend, dammit! So tempted to just get on a plane right now!

    Love to ALL!!!

    Step up Cali!

  84. Congratulations to all of you!

    This 20-something straight white guy (long-time reader, first-time poster, attracted first by your Prop 8 coverage) might never really know the elation you all feel right now, but now, you can all feel the joy that has been an option for me my whole life.

    Waiting for the day all 50 states allow marriage equality!

    • Thank you for being an ally and “getting it”, we need more people like you…. and I am waiting on that day too, although I am sure my state will be like state# 49 to get with that program!!

  85. I just realized why they kept pushing the vote back: the wanted to pass it on Pride weekend so it’s like a special gay right’s anniversary present, because New York loves us so much.

  86. oh man oh man oh man
    EXCITEMENT.
    Too bad I live in Kansas…marriage equality will pass here when I’m what, 90? :/

  89. I woke up today to my 22nd birthday and checked Autostraddle and THISSSS OMG so on facebook everyone’s like “happy birthday!” whereas my status is all “SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IN NEW YORK BEETCHES!”

    AS party in Scotland tonight!

  92. *is doing the running man, cabbage patch AND the butterfly*

    I’ve always been proud to be a lifelong New Yorker…But now it’s like x2000!!!

  94. Went down to the West Village after midnight.

    I drank so much. And, ironically, made out with SO many straight girls. Biggest hangover ever.

  95. got too drunk about it last night. some residual traces of nyc pride are coming up in me

  97. YAY! For those of you following in the AS Live feed thread last night that saw my posts, you know my gaybff Noah was there in the room! We texted back and forth, me telling him what the schedule of discussions was, and he telling me how restless everyone was and how they could hear people shouting in the hall.

    Well here’s an AWESOME vid of the crowds reaction (note the little kids!) with him in it! He’s at 1:47 wearing the purple “legalize gay” shirt. So proud!

    http://www.cbs6albany.com/video/?videoId=1021815897001

  99. OH MY GOD BECKY, LOOK AT THAT BILL! IT IS SO BIG, IT”S FUCKING HUGE!

    I was so excited when I found out that I came out to someone at work who is gay too!! We were whispering in the back corner of the office, silently jumping up and down and throwing punches in the air with the biggest smiles on our faces. She’s been with her partner for almost 20 years!!! Now we need to make it legal in every fucking state. So she can legally get married and so I can develop an even greater fear of commitment. GO CIVIL RIGHTS!

    • Props for managing to quote Sir Mix A Lot in reference to the gay marriage bill.

    • Like Lil Wayne?

      That’s an appropriate level of celebration right now.

      “GAY MARRIAGE IS LEGAL!” “WHAT?!” “GAY PEOPLE CAN GET MARRIED” “OH-KAYY”

  102. Y’ALL I can’t decide…should I take the bus down from Boston for the parade/crazy celebrating? I really shouldn’t spend the money and I’d have to get back in time for work on Monday, but we fucking WON.

  103. Jesus! I go into the mountain for two weeks and THIS SHIT HAPPENS? And I drove right by NY on my way home!

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