A Wedding Blessing

Blue Gal alerted me to today’s blogswarm against California’s Prop 8.

As you know, here in Ohio we have worries of our own. (Please oh please let us not be the state that throws the election to the Republicans again!) But I have lots of family and friends in California. For some of them, their current right to get married hangs in the balance.

I mentioned a couple weeks ago how the supporters of this proposition are making fools of themselves trying to stir up people’s fears. So I won’t go there again today.

Instead, I’ll just say that the wedding I mentioned in that previous post – between two women who’ve been together thirty-five years – is going forward this weekend at my mom’s church. She’s working the wedding, so she’ll be the person who deals with the florist and helps the brides find anything they need and cleans up afterward. (Hey, it’s not all glamour.)

For years, some of her church’s neighbors have demonized it – quite literally – for its support of the town’s small gay community. One person dubbed it “the devil church” in the local newspaper’s letters section. Hateful graffiti was aimed against it. I’m so pleased and proud that her congregation didn’t cave in to intimidation. (I also totally don’t get how people who claim to worship a God of love and forgiveness express it through rage and hate.)

While not everyone in her church is supportive of same-sex marriage, my mom feels tickled and honored to be playing a role as her congregation blesses a same-sex union for the first time ever. My mom is seventy-four. She wouldn’t have gotten behind even the idea of this twenty years ago. Now she’s thrilled for the brides. How did she evolve? Mostly just by getting to know actual gays and lesbians and becoming friends with them.

If Prop 8 passes, this will be both the first and the last same-sex wedding performed in her church. If Prop 8 goes down, it will be the most wonderful honeymoon present possible. As I said, they’ve been together 35 years. They don’t need crystal or china. Just this: Your no vote on Prop 8 (if you live in California) or your reminder to friends who live out there (if you don’t).

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