And it breaks my heart….
I consider myself a non-sentimental person. I don’t get swayed too easily by emotion and I’m not the sort that cries when I see a kitten (though I do love puppies). But certain things – and there’s no other way to say it – really move me. And one of those is definitely weddings.
I love weddings. There’s something about this old, amazing ritual that really stirs something up inside me. Quite apart from all the things a wedding is supposed to represent – please, therefore, try not to think of the rings symbolising ownership, the white dress symbolising virginity etc. – I love the idea that there is this beautiful ceremony that tells the everyone that there is a couple, and they are in love, and they want to share that love with the entire world. Or at least all their family and friends.
And so it’s articles like these that really make me well up inside. The important thing about marriage – specifically, in this case, gay marriage – is that it’s about love. All too often, I find myself thinking of the political statement I make by holding hands with or kissing my girlfriend in public. And the fact is, it’s not about that.
Gay people don’t want to be able to get married because it’s a political statement, or because it sticks two fingers up at the conservative right. We want to be able to get married because, when it comes down to it, we too would like the right to grow old with someone we love; to, as Hugh Muir puts it, have them on the wall, or on a little certificate that proclaims to all the world that they are ours and we are theirs and that in the eyes of the law and the government and every other state-based institution we are partners.
So I’m proud for the people in the US fighting for their right to be married. I’m proud for people in India, fighting for their right to be gay without risk of legal retribution. And I’m proud and grateful for every person in the world that is doing something to make the lives of gay people better. Because when it comes down to it, really, all you need is love. And gay rights.
Just to drive it home, watch this video – one of the sweetest things I’ve ever seen – from the Courage Campaign, which fought to keep couples, who’d married in that limbo period before Prop. 8 passed in California, married.
I’m all for gay rights, and it’s nice to see gay people having the choice of marriage.
Personally marriages don’t move me! I can’t think of anything less aesthetically pleasing than the white meringue dress and a tiered white wedding cake!
Black Forest, you are so heartless. Did you not see that video? I almost shed a tear. Yes. A tear!
Anyway – my little girl wedding dream never involved a white dress – it was a red and gold lengha and mehndi up to my wrists, thanks very much.
Aww that video was quite cute, also Regina Spektor is always a bonus to ANY montage. Sometimes its so easy to forget how lucky we are in Britain, I once watched a truly heartbreaking episode of Ricky Lake about ‘gay marriage’ in which her guests were a whole host of gay folk and a whole host of religious folk. The saddest tale was from one guy who had been refused access to his husband whilst he lay dying in hospital. Why? Because their marriage was not recognised as legal. (I think they got hitched in Cananda) End result, his husband died (without him getting the chance to say goodbye) and he now faces a battle for his husband estate from his incredibly unsympathetic family. It’s just so ridiculous. I think this says it all really…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2nsGtd7y3c
I’m not heartless, it just doesn’t move me – and I was just referring to aesthetic points such as the dress etc… I think its great that Gay people have a choice to marry and I certainly wouldn’t want it to be any other way. I think too many people marry to just see themselves in a Lengha /white dress and to please their families, and too little just for love…so I’d hate to see gay people fall into the institutionalized idea of marriage – lets hope it doesn’t happen – I’m jumping the gun and being cynical I guess (I like doing this), All I want is all the gay people across the world to be given rights to marry first. Like Sticky Toffee I feel very lucky to be living in Britain too, even-though I won’t be exercising my rights to marry.