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Making It Legal After Making It Legal

Huppah Dreams

by
Marc Tracy
February 06, 2012
John Banta and Daniel O'Donnell.(Sharon Schuster/NYT)
John Banta and Daniel O'Donnell.(Sharon Schuster/NYT)

Each Monday, we choose the most interestingly Jewish announcement from that Sunday’s New York Times Weddings/Celebrations section. This week, a fallow period is forcing us to stretch, but hopefully only slightly. It’s that of John Banta and Daniel O’Donnell. My guess and assumption is that neither is, actually, Jewish. But O’Donnell comes close in many ways: He is the state assemblyman representing the Upper West Side; he was an ardent supporter of the same-sex marriage bill that passed in New York last year, to the celebration of this particular weekly blog feature; and he is the brother of a public figure whose outer-borough barbs and love of Broadway has frequently seen her crowned an honorary tribeswoman (Rosie O’Donnell). He and Banta were married last weekend by a Jewish figure of the law, Judith S. Kaye, former chief judge of New York (a longtime champion of gay marriage). And, I mean, look at the picture. Hava negilah, and mazel tov to the happy couple!

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.