RVC Couple: NYS Finally Recognizes Us as a Couple

Rockville Centre resident Jeff Friedman has campaigned for gay marriage approval in New York State for the past five years, including spending much of the last month lobbying in Albany.

Now after New York's marriage equality bill was signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo Friday night, Friedman said he can breathe a sigh of relief.

“It’s been a very hard struggle for many of us, but the victory was very sweet,” he said.

Friedman and his husband, Andrew Zwerin, have been together more than 25 years. They wed in 2008 in California, one of the six states in the country that allows same-sex marriage. Together they have one son.

“We did everything backwards compared with the traditional person,” he said. “We had the house, we had the kid, we had everything — and then we got married. We actually lived our lives and then got married rather than getting married and building our lives.”

Friedman said the mood had been tense in Albany these past few weeks, but lauded key politicians involved.

“I believe if we have to give anyone credit in the process it would be clearly thanking Gov. Cuomo and secondarily thanking Sen. [Dean] Skelos,” Friedman said. “He was clearly instrumental in allowing the vote to go to the floor."

Friedman added: "Ralph Ellison wrote 'Invisible Man' and when he wrote that, one of its key sentences that I love is, ‘I’m invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.' I think yesterday, after 26 years with my husband, New York State finally recognizes us as a couple and with our son as a family on equal terms with everyone else.”