BIG Victory!

I know you know about it, so I will mention it just briefly:

New York has done it!

By a vote of 33-29, the New York state senate has passed and sent to Gov. Andrew Cuomo a bill authorizing same-sex marriage in New York. The final bill was the result of some hard negotiating over the extent of the carve-out for protection of religious bigotry, but they got it done.

New York thus becomes (or rather shortly will, after Cuomo signs the bill) the sixth state to recognize same-sex marriages - Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont are the others; Washington, DC also recognizes such marriages - and it is by far the largest. (Twelve other states have some version of civil unions.)

The bill goes into effect in 30 days and people are already making plans to marry.

Gay rights supporters chanted and danced in the streets of New York City into pre-dawn hours as news spread....

Crowds of people gathered to hug, dance and cheer outside the Stonewall Inn, in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, where riots broke out on June 28 1969 after police raided the gay-friendly bar. The incident is seen as the birth of the modern gay rights movement.

This video is worth watching. It's the last speech on the bill followed by the call of the vote. That begins at about 3:15 into the video and the sheer joy in the outburst that follows the formal announcement of the result is just - well, it nearly made me cry. And those who know me know that is a damn hard thing to do.

Footnote: Credit for the link to the video goes to Rumproast, one of my reciprocal links. Truth is, they are such Obama sycophants that I can't imagine how they can stomach reading me, but as long as they keep linkin' to me, I'll keep linkin' to (and occasionally reading) them.