Everybody Wins NYC Marriage Lottery

According to New York City officials, ALL of the gay couples who entered the marriage lottery will be able to wed this Sunday.

The city had established a lottery as a precaution, worried that high demand would overload clerk’s offices in the five boroughs on the historic day. But in the end, demand nearly matched supply, with 823 couples applying for 764 slots. To accommodate the overflow, the city will allow an additional 59 couples to marry. But because of strained resources, 74 couples who had hoped to marry in Manhattan, home to the city’s busiest marriage bureau, will be asked to go to another borough. Those couples will be selected at random, and the city planned to notify them Thursday night. “Everybody wins,” the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, said in a statement.

About 70 judges have volunteered to officiate at the ceremonies.