NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — Luna Island in Niagara Falls State Park is one of Kitty and Cheryle Lambert-Rudd's favorite places in the entire world.

"This will always be the one spot that steals my breath away," Kitty said.

It's not just the beauty of the natural wonder that makes this place so special to this couple. On July 24, 2011, Kitty and Cheryle became the first same-sex couple in New York to get legally married.

Flash back to a month earlier — Pride Month 10 years ago — the state Legislature passed the Marriage Equality Act and the governor signed it into law. On camera at Spectrum News 1 Buffalo, then-called YNN, Kitty wasted no time.

She proposed and Cheryle said, “Yes.”

"She nearly killed me after that," Kitty said. “She's like, ‘oh my God, what if I said no,’ and I said, ‘were you going to say no?’"

Their 10^th anniversary is coming up soon, but it's actually 22 years together.

"We got married on the day of our first date, and that wasn't our doing," he said. "That was the governor. He chose the dates."

Kitty and Cheryle are still in love, but they'll remind anyone who will listen that marriage equality was about much more than just two people in love. Kitty remembered as the wedding was winding down, taking it all in with their friends and activists who had worked so many years for that moment.

"We all looked at each other and said, now that this is done here, you know that just like the water over the falls, they're not going to be able to stop it. It's going to go everywhere and we all stood in a circle and cried for a while. It was just such a powerful moment," she said.

COVID has put a damper on their anniversary and Pride activities, but Kitty and Cheryle said there's a bright side: parade or not, they're seeing more people than ever not afraid to be themselves, and Kitty and Cheryle are proud to be a part of that.