My friends Jenni and Lissette were married last night.

Well, I'm sure there is another term, a more politically correct term used to define the public celebration and exchange of vows between two people of the same gender, whose act of doing so is not in any real, equal way recognized by the government as it is for those who perform a similar ritual but are of opposite genders. I'm sure that term exists, though I'm not sure why. Because last night I was at a wedding if I was at anything.

Moms, Dads, and Grandmas were in new suits and spangly dresses. Roses were everywhere. Officiants shared intimate, sweet stories of the couple to illustrate their relationship, even for just a glimpse. Rings were exchanged. People cried. Uncles and aunts got boozed up and everyone ate identical meals of chicken and steak, unless you were a vegetarian, which in that case you got that big pile of pasta and vegetables that every banquet hall passes off to the non-meat-eating members of your guest list. Everyone, well, everyone except for me, did the electric slide, danced the YMCA, and made little brothers get out on the floor and dance with all of the girls who were abandoned by their dates just because they were bringing sexy back with Justin Timberlake.

It's not my place to make some big, sweeping statement about gay marriage in America, and I will tell you that Lissette and Jenni certainly don't make any. Besides, other people have done it better, anyway. Mostly what I just wanted to say was that I felt really proud last night to be part of a community that supports and honors and loves my friends and what they share together, because I know that in other parts of this country, such a network does not exist.

Because here is the thing: without Jenni and Lissette to come home to these past few months - and as my neighbors and mommies to Glin's best friend, I really and truly did - I would have been lost. They have been my family and made things easier for Glin and I. They protected my sense of safety and home as though it was their own and for that I'll never be able to repay them. They are good people who pose less of a threat to some archaic notion about the sanctity of marriage than I do, and that they don't get the same benefits as us ungrateful heteros do makes me, well, sad.

See, it was a great night, and the girls looked beautiful, and the cake was delicious, and now my friends are married. No matter what anyone else might say. They are married.

Posted by Erin at 09:30 AM | filed under: Odds and ends

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