On September 26 at 12pm, thousands of New Yorkers will gather at Foley Square, near City Hall, to march across the Brooklyn Bridge and take a stand for fairness and equality at the 7th NYC Wedding March. This event, which began in 2004, is organized by Marriage Equality New York (MENY), to raise awareness about, and change, the inequality faced by same-sex couples in the state of New York.
Today in New York 1,324 rights are withheld from same-sex couples because they are denied the choice of entering into civil marriage (not including the 1,128 rights denied at the federal level). Some of these include the right to inheritance, paid leave or sick leave to care for an ill spouse or spouse’s child, the right to live with spouse in senior citizen housing development, rights to medical decision making for spouse and the right to protect a spouse from wrongful injury. Every person deserves equal treatment under the law, the same equal access to the most basic human right to marry whom they love, and to protect that love with all the rights that only the “I Do” of marriage can bestow on couples here in New York State.
The day features a rally with dynamic speakers, a march across the Brooklyn Bridge, and a community festival featuring entertainment, food, a family area, and music. United hand-in-hand in solidarity across one of the most famous landmarks in the world, the Wedding March makes a powerful statement that all love and all families should be respected and not compromised. This entire series of events creates the perfect opportunity to focus statewide attention on promoting equality for all New Yorkers. The Wedding March raises awareness at a critical time during an election year and gives us the ability to focus on the issue and see where our elected (or perspective) officials stand on the issue.
MENY is the largest and oldest statewide organization devoted exclusively to winning equal rights in civil marriage for all. It is also the founding chapter of Marriage Equality USA, the national organization with chapters in California, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. MENY-NYC is MENY’s largest group promoting education, awareness and events in New York City, Long Island, Westchester and Rockland counties. Marriage March is part of a series of marriage equality marches occurring in New York (New York City, Rochester, and Albany) and California (San Francisco).
Please support equality, as an individual or a group, for your family, friends, neighbors and coworkers by joining them at the march. Register, or get more information here.
