New York Today: Gay Marriage Crosses the River

Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey Journal, via Associated Press Richard Kiamco, left, and David Gibson were the first gay couple married in Jersey City this morning.

On the day that gay marriages were first performed in New York in 2011, supporters in New Jersey gathered on a pier in Hoboken.

They gazed across the Hudson toward New York.

“We said, ‘Why can’t we have that here?’ ” Hayley Gorenberg, deputy director of Lambda Legal, a gay-rights group, recalled on Sunday.

Just after midnight today, the first same-sex couples were wed in New Jersey.

It was a victory for the movement that was spurred in part by the earlier success in New York.

New Jersey had same-sex civil unions since 2007, but Ms. Gorenberg and others convinced the courts that this arrangement did not give couples full equal rights.

With the addition of New Jersey, the entire Eastern Seaboard from Maryland to Maine now allows gay marriage.

Ms. Gorenberg noted that with so many people crossing state borders, legal same-sex marriage in New York and not in New Jersey created confusion and inconsistent treatment.

Now, she said, “People who live in the tristate area and function in the tristate area - they’re going to be able to harmonize it all.”

Here’s what else you need to know for Monday.

WEATHER

Enjoy the sunshine, for tomorrow it may rain. High of 66.

COMMUTE

Subways: Fine so far. Click for latest status.

Rails: Fine so far. Click for L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.

Roads: Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect all week.

COMING UP TODAY

- Joseph J. Lhota tours the LGBT Community Center in the West Village, visits a senior center in Brooklyn and attends a Log Cabin Republicans fund-raiser.

- Bill de Blasio has no campaign appearances but makes a joint announcement with the state attorney general, Eric Schneiderman.

- Mayor Bloomberg is on “CBS This Morning” at 8:30, talking about Broadway.

- The first Brooklyn Open golf tournament tees off at Marine Park Golf Course, with a purse of $5,000.

- The New York Television Festival gets under way with free screenings of several pilots at TriBeCa Cinemas.

- A lecture on “Marriage, Romance and Early American Jews” at the main New York Public Library. 5:30 p.m. [Free, registration required]

- Boo/yay: A free screening of “The Witches,” starring Anjelica Huston, at Jefferson Market Library in the Village. 6:30 p.m.

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- Are you ready for the one-very-long-car subway train? It may be coming. In 30 years. [New York Times]

- Water rates - up 78 percent since 2005 - are getting ready to rise again. [Daily News]

Sandra E. Garcia contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

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Using Bedbugs to Get a Love Seat

Victor Kerlow

Dear Diary:

Coming out of my brownstone in Greenwich Village with my family, we passed a couch and a matching love seat on the sidewalk. Both pieces had big, taped-on signs that read “BEDBUGS: KEEP OFF!” in bold crimson letters. Naturally, we steered clear of the furniture and made our way to a restaurant a few blocks away.

After we finished eating, my family and I took a leisurely stroll back home. As we reached the spot where we had first come upon the bedbug-ridden furniture, we saw three college-age guys trying to balance the couches on skateboards!

“Stop!” My dad yelled. “Didn’t you see the signs? There are bedbugs on those!”

A guy with red hair and a curly beard steadying one side of the couch said: “Yeah, we know. We just put those signs there so no one would take these.”

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