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Gay married in New York (and loving it)

Not even record temperatures and toxic air quality could keep the revelers away. On 24 July, 2011, gay marriage was legalised in the state of New York, and more than 800 couples corralled around City Hall to make their relationships official. Clutching fans and bottles of water, men and women in dresses, suits, kilts – and, in one case, crowns – waited patiently alongside their smiling witnesses and civil rights activists. But, despite sporadically bursts of cheering, the activists remained fairly low-key here, favouring flyers and conversation over placards. There were few of the signature rainbow flags flying alongside white carnations: this day, for many participants, was first and foremost a personal triumph.

A solitary protester – male, Jewish, dressed all in black – stood on the opposite sidewalk holding a sign that said “THIS IS A MISTAKE.” Under the collective chatter of a thousand jubilent New Yorkers his voice couldn’t even carry across the street. He looked lonely, like a man who had stumbled into the twenty-first century purely by accident.

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Uploaded on Jul 24, 2011

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