New York’s Same-Sex Marriage Lottery, a NOM Rally and Hairy Puppet Marriage

This Sunday sees the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York and, because clerk offices have decided to open for the event, it also means the first day gay marriages can be performed in the state.

So many same-sex couples wanted to mark this historic day by also making it their wedding day that Mayor Michael Bloomberg created a lottery system so that couples had a fair and equal chance of obtaining a license without having to wait in line four hours only to be disappointed.

Here’s the story of one anxious couple who were waiting to find out whether they would be chosen (via Such Is Life Videos):

http://youtu.be/z0vzh6347aU

Same-Sex Marriage Lottery: Now Everybody Wins!

However, the good news is the city has decided to allow all 823 registered couples to marry Sunday by increasing the limits on how many couples can marry in certain boroughs.

From MSNBC:

The clerk’s offices in each of the five boroughs have their own limit of couples for this Sunday. Each of the outer boroughs had enough spots for interested couples, but in Manhattan where only 400 spots were available, 533 couples registered, according to New York Magazine.

In order to accommodate everyone, city officials decided to expand the number of ceremonies in Manhattan to 459 and the other 74 couples who applied to marry in Manhattan will instead marry in one of the other four boroughs.

Both straight and gay couples were allowed to register in the lottery Thursday and those who registered didn’t have to reveal their genders, so it is unknown how many of the 823 couples intending to marry are gay, New York Magazine said.

NY Gay Marriage Protests

Anti-gay marriage groups will be holding a rally Sunday rather loftily called “Stand Up and Be Heard Let the People Vote!”

The drive is backed by the National Organization for Marriage which has decided to waste pledged over $2 million to overturn New York’s gay marriage law at the ballot.

New York does not currently have a referendum process although there have been moves to change that. Even if gay marriage went to the ballot, a convincing majority in New York polls in favor of same-sex marriage. With that being an upward trend, it would appear voters are even less likely to want to take away a right to same-sex marriage that, by the time a referendum process could be enacted, will have been in force for quite a while.

Puppet Marriage

2008 Cover by outlookmedia, via Flickr

Among those soon to be tying the knot are puppet characters Rod and Ricky from the award-winning musical Avenue Q. They’ll be getting hitched before Sunday’s matinee performance. Rod released the following statement regarding their joyous celebration (via On Top Magazine):

“To have this finally happen for us — especially so soon after Will and Kate — is unbelievable to me. I realize there are a lot of broken hearts out there now that Ricky and I are off the market … but I’ve known since Day One that Ricky is the husband for me. He’s the furry fellow I want to spend my life with both on and off the stage.”

(I’d like to point out NOM never warned us about puppet marriage. This changes everything!)

Avenue Q’s soon-to-be married couple will not be alone among the jazz hands and soaring ballads crowd as Rory O’Malley, co-founder of marriage equality group Broadway Impact,  recently announced that “several same-sex couples from the Broadway community will be getting married onstage [at the St. James Theatre]…immediately following [Sunday] evening’s performance of HAIR.” You can find out more about that here.

There are a whole host of events planned throughout the state, and New York looks set to break its own record for the number of marriages to be carried out in one day, so congratulations to all same-sex couples in New York who are looking forward to marrying this Sunday, and in the months and years ahead!

Photo used under the MorgueFile user license, with thanks to mensatic.