Champion Of Same-Sex Marriage Gets His Own License To Marry

By: Bobby Cuza

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For years, Manhattan Assemblyman Danny O’Donnell has been one of the state’s most vocal advocates for same-sex marriage, and on Wednesday he got his own marriage license in order to throw what may be the political wedding of the year. NY1's Bobby Cuza filed the following report.

Last year, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Marriage Equality Act into law. Now, Assemblyman Danny O’Donnell, along with his partner, John Banta, are signing up and joining in matrimony after 31 years together.

“It’s been a long time in coming. And so, the political fight in New York is over,” said O'Donnell.

For years, O’Donnell was at the center of that fight. The first openly gay man in the State Assembly, he introduced five bills to legalize gay marriage over the years and stood right beside the governor when he declared victory.

O’Donnell and Banta were at the City Clerk’s office in Downtown Manhattan on Wednesday to obtain their marriage license, but the ceremony and reception will be a much more elaborate affair taking place on Sunday.

The guest list reads like a who’s who of New York politics and invitations have gone out to more than 400 guests.

“I invited almost all of the members of the Assembly and almost all the members of the Senate who voted yes to come to my wedding, which, when you add their spouses, that’s a lot of people," said O'Donnell. "So they were invited, and most of them are coming.”

Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand are expected, as is former Governor David Paterson; Cuomo cannot make it. Judith Kaye, the state’s former chief judge, will officiate.

To be sure, O’Donnell’s nuptials will not be New York's first high-profile gay wedding: Mayor Michael Bloomberg married two of his top aides at Gracie Mansion and another gay assemblyman, Matthew Titone, married in September. It also will not be the last, as City Council Speaker Christine Quinn plans to marry this spring.

O’Donnell will not even be the most publicized gay marriage in his family, as his sister, TV personality Rosie O’Donnell, is also engaged. But given the assemblyman's role in making gay marriage a reality, this wedding will carry special significance.