The 42-33 vote sends the bill to Christie, who won't take immediate action. The Republican governor who opposes gay marriage had promised "very swift action" if the bill passed both houses of the Legislature, but the Assembly isn't required to send the bill to his desk until the close of business Friday. "Without question this is a historic day in the state of New Jersey," Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver said after the vote. She said she had never been more proud of the Democratic caucus for doing "what citizens sent us here to do: to deliberate, to use the legislative process to represent the interests of all New Jerseyans." Steven Goldstein, chairman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality, echoed the speaker's sentiments. "Today, the Legislature has brought us to the promised land," said Goldstein. A woman in the gallery is overcome by emotion after a bill sponsored by Assemblyman Reed Gusciora D-Trenton, legalizing same-sex marriages, passes and is the final Legislative approval for Marriage Equality at the State House in Trenton, N.J., Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz) Close The affirmative vote in the Assembly after more than two hours of debate ended weeks of speculation over whether Democrats who control the chamber would muster the 41 votes needed for the measure to pass. Four of the Assembly's 47 Democrats voted no, and a fifth was out of town and didn't vote. No Republicans voted in favor of the bill. "We do have two years," said Reed Gusciora, a Trenton Democrat who sponsored the bill in the Assembly and one of two openly gay state lawmakers. We changed a lot of views in the last couple of weeks. Give us two years and we're going to change a heck of a lot more. Gusciora also expressed hope that the governor would reconsider. "I hope at the end of the day the governor understands what it's like to grow up as a gay or lesbian in the state, and that there are challenges, there is discrimination and this will come a long way of helping right all the wrongs," he said.