One in Four New Marriages in New York City Is Gay

So far 1,400 gay couples have wed in the Big Apple

The results are in: in the month since New York state's Marriage Equality Act took effect, about 1,400 gay couples have been wed in New York City, according to a New York Post report. That means that a quarter of all NYC marriages were gay since July 24, the date the law was activated. That seriously outperforms the percentage of city residents who are gay, which is 4.5, according to a 2006 estimate. (Of course, some marriage licenses were issued to out-of-state residents.)

Computing the number of gay marriages isn't as straightforward as one might expect. It's impossible for city officials to determine exactly how many of the 5,597 marriage licenses given out since the law took effect went to gay couples as the application no longer asks those getting married to indicate their gender. So the city's analysis, as reported by the Post, went something like this: New York City saw a 33 percent jump in the number of marriage applications this past month from the same period last year, so it's reasonable to attribute almost all of that influx to the legalization of gay marriage. A statewide figure would be even harder to calculate, since marriage licenses are issued by individual municipalities in New York state.