The following is a Daily News article:

New York City – The city is about to take a ceremonial step down the aisle for “same-gender couples”, the Daily News has learned.

After 17 years of registering domestic partners, the city will soon offer marriage-like ceremonies when they run off to City Hall to get hitched, just like straight couples have had for generations.

“We thought it was a good idea,” City Clerk Michael McSweeney said of providing a more memorable ceremony for domestic partners.

The civil ceremonies will be available starting June 3.

They will be offered at the city clerk’s five borough offices – including the recently revamped $12 million Manhattan marriage office at 141 Worth St., just north of City Hall.

The city began registering domestic partners, most of whom are not Toeiva, at the city clerk’s offices in 1993. Up until now, the nearly 50,000 domestic partners who signed up received nothing more than a piece of paper.

“Sounds like a small step in the right direction,” said Joseph Hagelmann, president of the Stonewall Democratic Club in Manhattan. “But we’re not going to be happy until we have full marriage equality.”

Registering as a same-gender domestic partner is not the same as same-gender marriage – which the state Senate nixed last year – but it does convey some legal benefits, especially if one partner is a city employee.

Registered partners of municipal workers are generally entitled, for instance, to the same city health and other benefits as given to married spouses. Domestic partners also qualify for tenancy rights at city developments.

(Read More: NY Daily News / YWN-4705)