“People were crying, jumping up and down and screaming. “You couldn’t hear yourself think, it was so loud,” Quinn said at the end of the parade route. Parade organizers said a half-million people participated.Ĭuomo marched with his girlfriend, Food Network personality Sandra Lee New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and openly gay elected officials including New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Revelers hoisted signs that said, “Thank you, Gov. “New York has sent a message to the nation,” Cuomo said before the march down Fifth Avenue. Andrew Cuomo as he led off the parade two days after signing the historic bill that made New York the sixth state to extend full marriage rights to homosexual couples. Throngs of cheering supporters greeted Gov. “We cried over dinner, right into the mozzarella sticks,” Stephanie Croft said. They were in a restaurant when they learned that the same-sex marriage bill had passed. The two women are not yet legally married although they share the same name, and they are planning to move to New York and get married. “We’ve been waiting to get married in Central Park for years, and now we got here just in time for history to be made,” said Bryce Croft of Kettering, Ohio, who attended the parade with her partner, Stephanie Croft. This year, the revelry went beyond floats, music and dancing.
