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History was made tonight in our state!

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.

In New York, passage of the bill reflects rapidly evolving sentiment about same-sex unions. In 2004, according to a Quinnipiac poll, 37 percent of the state's residents supported allowing same-sex couples to wed. This year, 58 percent of them did. Advocates moved aggressively this year to capitalize on that shift, flooding the district offices of wavering lawmakers with phone calls, e-mails and signed postcards from constituents who favored same-sex marriage, sometimes in bundles that numbered in the thousands.

Remember: the Gay Rights movement started here in New York City and signals a massive shift in the national debate:

But New York could be a shift: It is now by far the largest state to grant legal recognition to same-sex weddings, and one that is home to a large, visible and politically influential gay community. Supporters of the measure described the victory in New York as especially symbolic -- and poignant -- because of its rich place in the history of gay rights: the movement's foundational moment, in June 1969, was a riot against police inside the Stonewall Inn, a bar in the West Village.

But here's the best part of the story:

During a brief recess during the voting, Senator Shirley Huntley, a Queens Democrat who had only recently come out in support of same sex marriage, strode from her seat to the back of the Senate chamber to congratulate Daniel J. O'Donnell, an openly gay Manhattan lawmaker who sponsored the legislation in the Assembly.

They hugged, and Assemblyman O'Donnell, standing with his longtime partner, began to tear up.

"We're going to invite you to our wedding," Mr. O'Donnell said. "Now we have to figure out how to pay for one."

Now that's a happy problem, eh?

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