How To Attend A Baby Boomer Gay Marriage

Portland Timbers via Gay Marriage Oregon/Facebook

Have you been at the altar for a gay marriage?

In the audience?

If so, which part of the ceremony was evil enough to mark the couples for death like the suggestion reported in the Huffington Post?

As a life guide the Bible leads the way.

In the hands of hate-mongers it leads astray.

Get back on track with these simple, free, ideas on how to attend a gay wedding.

• If it’s indoors, show up in your Sunday church clothes, find a mom, and offer to help.

You got invited because you know one of the people getting married. Represent.

If you know one of the people, you know family and friends. Help out, or offer to help out.

• If it’s an outdoor ceremony, do the same. Find a mom and offer to help.

Tell them how glad you are to be there, what a beautiful spot, and how good the participants look on their special day.

Gay or straight, it’s a wedding day, a special day in family and friend history. Treat it with respect.

You may be thinking, “Yeah, you bet, it’s easy to hide behind a screen and dole out wedding advice on a keyboard. The writer’s probably never been to a gay wedding. Probably not even married.”

To set the record straight, I’ve been to gay and lesbian weddings. Did I want to go? No. I didn’t even want to go to my own wedding, but once things start rolling it’s a good party.

Do you know how to have a good time? Then go to the gay wedding.

Do you know how to behave yourself in public? Then go to the gay wedding.

Do you have religious beliefs that prevent you from going? Then go to the gay wedding.

Do you have morals and values that block you from going? Then go to the gay wedding.

I was uncertain about going, but went to the gay wedding. No, I didn’t kiss the grooms or brides at the gay weddings, but kissed my wife at mine. Kissed the heck out of her after a very loud, “I DO,” over the roar of pounding rain.

No one else kissed me at my wedding but my wife. Might have missed out.

All three wedding, mine, the guys, and the ladies, had more in common than apart. Same cake. Same drinks. Same bouquet toss.

Nothing to it.

Of course my wedding set the bar for every wedding after. Yours did too if it was conducted outside in a driving rain full of Chernobyl radiation May of 1986.

No wedding since had a killer snow storm the day after that trapped Episcopal School students on Mt. Hood. My first married night was spent inside Timberline Lodge. The next day was Mother’s Day.

No gay wedding will have the same drama and tragedy, so you’re safe on that.

If you have gay or lesbian friends, be a friend and show up at their wedding if you’re invited.

There’s plenty of weddings you won’t be invited to.

Be honest with yourself. You don’t want to attend a gay wedding because you’re lazy, not because the Bible told you so.

Get up and go.