NEW PALTZ, NY. JoAnne Still (left) and her partner Mary Mendola (right), both of Accord, NY rejoicing together after their wedding ceremony performed by Mayor Jason West (far right) in New Paltz, NY on Friday, February 27, 2004. © CHET GORDON / THE IMAGE WORKS*(This from the New York Times): ALBANY — Lawmakers voted late Friday to legalize same-sex marriage, making New York the largest state where gay and lesbian couples will be able to wed and giving the national gay-rights movement new momentum from the state where it was born.
I remember this well, I was a sophomore at New Paltz when this happened and we covered it constantly for the campus paper. I only had a little point and shoot camera at the time. Jason West was a house painter who dropped out of New Paltz and basically had all these drugged out deadlocked guys campaigning for him that fall, but then he exploded onto the national scene with this stuff -- he was on Conan and in Time magazine. I remember going over to Town Hall and seeing all the NYC TV reporters and cameras and news trucks -- I'm sure I saw you up there.
ReplyDeleteThen, West got into a ton of legal trouble and was defeated in the re-election and essentially disappeared. He recently was just re-elected, though, I think this past year. That whole story really got me into continuing in journalism and photography, though, it was very exciting for us on campus.
-Danny