Lawmakers See Progress Toward Gay Marriage Equality

City lawmakers are raising their voices in support of gay marriage, joining hundreds of New Yorkers yesterday in a march across the Brooklyn Bridge to boost awareness about the issue.

The marchers wore stickers bearing an equal sign, and the crowd cheered as lawmakers talked up the prospect of legal gay marriage in New York State. Speakers at the event included Comptroller William Thompson Jr., Manhattan's president, Scott Stringer, and the city's first gay City Council speaker, Christine Quinn.

"I don't think we are that far away," Mr. Thompson said at a rally in City Hall Park before the march.

Earlier this year, Governor Paterson ordered that New York recognize same-sex marriages from other states. Organizers of yesterday's event read a statement from the governor, in which he wrote: "The right to marry should be supported and protected equally."

The Assembly has passed a bill that would grant marriage rights to same-sex couples, but it has stalled in the Republican-controlled state Senate.

Speakers yesterday spoke of the efforts under way to unseat the Republican majority in the Senate this year, which they said could prove decisive in legalizing gay marriage in New York.

"There's nothing more important we could do for marriage equality than to win back the New York State Senate," Ms. Quinn said.

Same-sex couples can marry in Massachusetts and California.