Carrying signs with slogans like “Just NOT Married” and red heart-shaped balloons, more than 100 people held a rally outside the Manhattan Marriage Bureau on Thursday morning to demand that New York State extend marriage rights to same-sex couples.
The protest coincided with, but was not formally part of, the 12th annual Freedom to Marry Week, a series of events throughout the United States intended to draw attention to marriage laws.
The protest was organized by two groups, Marriage Equality New York, part of Marriage Equality USA, and Join the Impact.
The protesters gathered outside the new Manhattan Marriage Bureau, at 141 Worth Street, near Centre Street, but their ire was really more directed at the state government than at the city government. New York City’s mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, supports same-sex marriage rights, as does the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, who is openly gay. But in Albany, even though the Democrats seized control of the State Legislature last fall and also control the governor’s mansion, the movement for same-sex marriage has stalled.
Malcolm A. Smith, the leader of the Senate’s new Democratic majority, recently suggested that a vote on same-sex marriage this year was unlikely; the Democrats are fearful of losing their new — and razor-thin — majority by tackling controversial social issues.