[History] Gay Marriage Passes in New York, Six Iconic Twitter Images

If you went to bed early and didn’t log on to any social media sites yet, you may have missed the news that gay marriage became legal in New York late last night.

Reaction to the news was almost overwhelmingly positive, especially on sites like Facebook and Twitter, where gay marriage in New York dominated nearly half of the trending topics list for most of the evening. One of the most tweeted words was “Stonewall,” a reference to riots that occurred in 1969 in New York’s West Village between gay residents and the NYPD. In the 42 intervening years, the gay rights movement has progressed significantly- but New York becoming the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage is a massive coup for the movement.

A giant crowd gathered at the historic site to celebrate the victory, and below are images posted to Twitter by attendees. (And one video.) As a New Yorker, it is especially moving to watch the Empire State Building lit up in rainbows to celebrate.

Did you follow the events on social media? Are you proud of New York for stepping up?

[Images: @emofly, @laurenleto, @joshtpm, @maureenjohnson, goodasyou.com]