At the end of 2002 the state of New York added sexual orientation to its Human Rights Law, forbidding discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, credit and education.

The Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA) flew through the legislature in Albany, passing in a mere . . . 31 years.

If the New York Yankees displayed that kind of speed, there would be rioting in the Bronx.

When SONDA was first introduced in 1971, it was the first gay rights legislation to be introduced in any state legislature in the nation.

Apparently that distinction wasn’t enough for New Yorkers, who have now set a record for endurance.

In fact, perhaps a new event should be added to the Gay Games: the 30-year marathon.

New York is now lucky 13, the 13th state to protect gays and lesbians. It joins all the other northeastern states, except for Maine, in offering these protections. In 1971 the Empire State led by example; in 2002 it scrambled to catch up.

It does seem not a little ironic that achieving these basic rights took such a long time in the state where the gay rights movement is often said to have started. Maybe non-gay New Yorkers sabotaged SONDA for so long as a way of paying gays back for forever linking New York with gay militancy. Maybe they stonewalled over Stonewall.

The trauma caused by those dramatic events in 1969 likely went deep. Perhaps they were haunted by images of bull dykes throwing bricks in distinctly unladylike fashion. And of drag queens hurling bottles in distinctly unladylike fashion.

It cannot have been easy all these years for gay New Yorkers to watch neighboring states pass gay rights laws. Imagine a conversation of a year ago between two homosexual men, one from New York, the other from a state that shares a border with New York, Vermont:

The Vermonter says, “Your state has Broadway, and Christopher Street, and all that gay history.”

The New Yorker replies, “So true. But you have fabulous fall foliage.”

“Yours is pretty good too,” says the Vermonter. He sighs deeply. “Well, we’ll just have to make do with our nondiscrimination law and civil unions.”

“Bitch.”

Certainly 31 years seems like a ridiculously long wait for this piece of legislation to pass. In that time, countless people were born in Buffalo and Lake Placid and Montauk, grew up, married, realized they were gay, divorced, sublet a studio in Chelsea, and opened an antiques store in SoHo underneath a Lebanese bakery. Countless people.

For 31 years New York’s state government effectively told its gay citizens they were not worth protecting. The message was received.

And yet. Perhaps it wasn’t such a long time after all. Not if you look at the dreaded Big Picture.

If you consider Stonewall the beginning of the gay rights movement, then we’ve only been at this liberation thing for 33 years. In that time we’ve made strides the length of the Abominable Snowman’s.

We’ve gone from being invisible to visible. We’ve gone from closets to boardrooms. We’ve gone from being generally loathed and despised to loathed and despised by just a portion of society.

We know we’re entitled to the same rights as any other Americans, and, being merely human, we want them now. Now, now, now--and yesterday would be better. But we need to remember how far we’ve come in what has been, yes, a short amount of time.

How much time will it take for the other 37 states to pass their own SONDA’S? Unknown. But here’s betting that it will seem like forever, even if, according to the Big Picture, it happens faster than a Rudy Galindo triple axel.

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