Community Corner

Henry Tobin and Ted Kaplan Wed After 24 Years

Vermont? Iowa? Fughhedaboutit. Die-hard New Yorkers Henry Tobin and Ted Kaplan were willing to wait nearly three decades for a marriage on their home turf.

Deputy Mayor Henry Tobin and attorney Ted Kaplan were married last Friday in an intimate ceremony officiated by Mayor George Doll at their Northport home after a 24-year engagement awaiting same-sex marriage legalization in New York.

New York joined Vermont, Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Washington, D.C. in legalizing same-sex marriage on June 24 after a long and arduous battle in the Senate, giving the national gay-rights movement new momentum from its home state.

"It's been a long time," Tobin said. "We have friends who have gone to other places and done it earlier, but we felt it was right to wait until New York."

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The couple knew they'd be together forever after meeting in Oyster Bay 27 years ago, Tobin said, and the formal act of marriage now carves their bond even deeper.

"I was surprised--a few days before the wedding, I did start feeling different in terms of this new layer of seriousness and commitment, which was wonderful."  

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