Photographs by Beth Greenfield

Hopefully, the facts about last night’s marriage-rights vigil—organized by Marriage Equality New York (thank you, MENY!) in Union Square—are not an indication of how this week’s possible New York State special-session vote on the issue (delayed, sadly, from this afternoon) will go. First of all, there were not many people on board (200, at most, showed up to hold candles and chant, and the only two speakers were Council Speaker Christine Quinn and MENY director Ron Zacchi). Second, the chants were kind of lame (”They will vote! Yes! They will vote! Yes!”). And finally, the whole event was upstaged by a hideous combo of commercialism and war worship: the slick, mobbed, loud release party for the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which was already in full swing at the south end of the park when the gays showed up with candles and signs and rainbow flags and messages of love. It would have been funny if it weren’t so disturbing.