How to Celebrate New York’s 400 Marriage to Amsterdam? Get Hitched

How does a peaceful city like Amsterdam, where everybody is gay, send a giant “F U” message to the United States without actually lifting a middle finger? By witnessing Mayor Job Cohen wed five American-Dutch gay couples.

Cohen, who performed Holland’s first gay nuptials eight years ago, joined tens of thousands of spectators (or, supposedly, half a million) who watched him oversee the group wedding of five international couples on a cruise around Amsterdam’s famed canals. In four of the five couples, one partner was from New York — a fitting message given New York (nee Nieuw Amsterdam) and Amsterdam’s 400-year marriage of their own. Implicit in the multinational marriages: New York is so two thousand-late.