Equal?

Weddings, I'm not a huge fan. Oh sure, I enjoy celebrating the union of two people who love each other. But, I never DREAMED of weddings as a child. They're nice, but usually UNBEARABLY long and lots of pomp and circumstance that bore me silly.

That being said, my husband and I went to a wedding last night that was (blessedly) shorter that MOST, and had enough of the couples personality in it to make it fun and a TRUE celebration of the two unique people getting married. VERY sweet indeed!

At the reception, we sat with several couples, one of whom is a lovely gay couple. They married in Canada almost five years ago. One is a Teacher (works with MY hubby), the other is an AMAZING artist who has had his work recognized at the WHITE HOUSE!! Just two fun, adorable, wonderful people.

The (bland) DJ played a song and invited ALL of the marreid couples to get on the dance floor. Now, the Bride and Groom would have welcomed their gay friends to join them and trip the light fantastic. But, despite the gentle proding of MANY people at our table, this couple declined. They did not want to "ruin" their friends wedding reception by dancing together.
Very thoughtful friends indeed.
BUT......how very sad that they had to take that into consideration! The idea that two people, who love each other and are in a committed relationship, cannot DANCE together at a friend's wedding for fear of RUINING the celebration!!

Granted, MY dancing has undoubtedly ruined MANY a celebration...but that is ANOTHER matter!
I hope someday soon, the site of two men or two woman DANCING togther will no longer be seen as grounds for 'RUINING" a celebration.
Unless, of course, they BOTH dance like me!

Gay Marriage........

December 10th, 2008 is "A Day Without Gays" day. http://www.jointheimpact.com/ came up with the idea of calling in GAY to work, and then spending the day volunteering, marching, protesting (peacefully, I hope) to show support for gay marriage.
As you may know, Proposition 8 passed in California, outlawing gay marriage. There has been a HUGE uproar in the GLBT and P-FLAG community ever since.
I also heard of a great idea for those of us who WANT to support this worthy cause, but realistically cannot take off work. Because, seriously, with the economy being what it is, people NEED their jobs, and let me tell ya, there are MANY places in this country where you would get fired (or WORSE) for calling in gay. Not good.
Even then, some people just plain need the money and cannot afford to give up a vacation/sick day.
Wear a white knot to work. White representing what people traditionally wear to get married, and tying the knot, ect. I believe this was first posted on http://www.whiteknot.org/ . When people ask what the white knot is for, you can tell them about prop 8 and gay marriage, gay rights/human rights and so on.
Beyond that, WHY do people so oppose gay people getting married? I fail to see how someone else's marriage, ANYONE else's marriage affects my own. Believe me, straight people have been screwing up marriage for a LONG TIME now. Lets give someone else a shot!
It just seems so arcaic to me. It's like looking back at when interracial relationships were illegal. We remember that and wonder how people could have been so blind, so foolish!
I hope someday, we will look back and wonder how on earth anyone thought opposing the union of two loving grown adults was considered acceptable. Be that 2 men, 2 women or one man and one woman.
Truthfully, I have seen as many (maybe more) examples or true committed love being demonstated by same-sex couples as hetro-couples. You can find positive and negative examples of ANYTHING! Why not give the gay couples the same basic rights as everyone else?
What does it hurt? How does it change ANYTHING that does or does not happen in my own life and home?
I just don't get it.
Hey! I've got an idea!!!! If we want to oppose something, lets oppose the union of STUPID people! Now THAT could do all of us some good............