Acclaimed playwright Terrence McNally married his partner Tom Kirdahy on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

The couple, together for nearly 10 years, were married by the Rev. George Walker of the People's Congregational United Church of Christ, according to the Associated Press. Actress Tyne Daly, currently starring in a month-long festival of McNally’s work at the Kennedy Center, served as a witness.

“On Tuesday, the 71-year-old playwright and his partner, Tom Kirdahy, 46, exchanged vows on the banks of the Potomac River with the new same-sex marriage law in the U.S. capital,” reported the AP. “Never mind their 25-year age difference, he said. They don't feel it, except for their tastes in music.”

Kirdahy, an attorney and Broadway producer, read from Corpus Christi, the McNally play that depicts a Christ-like figure as gay, and recently sparked controversy at a Texas college campus.

The men received a civil union in Vermont in 2001, but they wanted a legal marriage, the AP reports. Their out-of-state marriage will be recognized back home in New York.

"We want the 'M' word," McNally said. "We don't like separate but equal. We want equal."