FInally, a lottery where everyone's a winner!
Last week, in order to meet the high demand of gay couples who want to tie the knot this Sunday--when New York's Marriage Equality Act goes into effect--New York City announced it would have to hold a lottery. Couples had until noon yesterday to register for one of the 764 available spots.
Yesterday afternoon, however, Marc LaVorgna, deputy press secretary to Mayor Bloomberg, announced 823 couples had registered-- and seeing as how that's only 59 more spots than the city originally offered up, officials decided to scramble and accomodate, CBS News reports. This Sunday, July 24th, 823 couples will get married in the Big Apple.
"Everybody wins!" said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, according to The New York Daily News. "This Sunday, all New Yorkers will be winners when we make history and move human rights forward in all five boroughs."
Every lottery applicant who selected a borough outside of Manhattan received a slot in the location they requested, Metropolis reports. In Manhattan, there were 133 more requests than slots available. And so to meet the demand, the city increased the number of available slots in Manhattan by 59. As for the 74 other couples who requested a Manhattan marriage but didn't get a slot, the city said it will make Sunday time available in one of the other four boroughs.
Also, as Daily Intel points out, couples registering for the lottery didn't have to disclose their genders, so there's no data on how many of the couples are actually straight, but gay marriage means equal treatment under the law, as Dan Amira notes, not preferential treatment.