John and I went to our first gay wedding in San Francisco, held at the LGBT Center. The ceremony was held on the terrace looking over Market Street and reception was in the adjacent room. The couple, Brad and Travis, were very happy and Travis was close to tears when he professed his love for Brad during their vows. They had two friends sing songs, their best friends and Travis' daughter read poems and short stories that described their love for each other and the ceremony ended with three lovely pecks on the lips -just adorable!
They used orange as their color and carried it out through the decor, what the bridal party wore, to the colors used on the tables and cake. Speaking of the cake, it was delicious! It tasted like a scrumptious lemon square- John and I both had two pieces and felt a little guilty after...but hey, we were celebrating his friends commitment to each other and why not EAT CAKE!
I think marriage should be allowed for everyone - all races, religions, and sexual preferences should be able to declare their love for another human being. I had an interesting conversation with a gentleman named Ken at the wedding. He said it was amusing how they State of California can grant the right for gay marriage and then propose to take it away (proposition 8 in the upcoming election). He said, "I wonder how black people would feel if the white man decided to say, lets all now vote on whether we should let you vote in this country, we really don't think we got it right the first time around."
I said, we can put woman in that category too, imagine the right for woman to vote was up for discussion and men had an opportunity to vote on whether they should vote. Image in the uproar!
I then rationalized it all by saying this all comes from people who are sheltered and don't understand all aspects of gay lifestyle. What people don't understand they fear. Fear is passed on to others as reality and it gets spun out of control. Part of solving this sort of discrimination is to understand where it stems from.
I believe conservative religion is to blame for most of this discrimination as it has always perpetuated the idea that homosexuality is wrong. People hide behind passages of the Holy Bible that are twisted and manipulated to make them feel they are justified in their discrimination.
I look forward to the day when I see this as a thing of the past, something people read in their history books as, wow - it took this country that long to get this right!
1 comment:
I still love what Daley said a few years ago: "Gay people aren't ruining marriage - divorce has been doing a fine job of that for 50 years now. Don't go blaming the gays and transgendered."
Not a direct quote, but I thought it was awesome to hear him say.
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