As Goes Martha...Martha Stewart Wedding Features Same-Sex Couple for First Time

Good As You
December 21, 2009
Blogger Jeremy Hooper announces the profile of his wedding in the Winter 2010 edition of Martha Stewart Weddings, the first wedding of a same-sex couple to be featured in the magazine. (Link)

Congratulations Jeremy and Andrew!

South African Rites

The New York Times
July 16, 2009
A self-described "middle-class white man" from South Africa tells of his experiences in applying for and receiving a marriage ceremony for he and his black partner of nearly two decades through a government-run Home Affairs office in Edenvale, near Johannesburg. [Link]

The $9.5 Billion Marriage Equality Windfall

Forbes
June 16, 2009
There are 781,267 same-sex couples living together in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau's 2005-07 American Community Survey. Talk about a stimulus package. While wedding-related revenues--snagged by small shops to giant corporations top $160 billion (an average wedding now costs $20,400), the industry has shrunk at an annualized 1.9% rate after inflation since 1999. If half of the same-sex couples got hitched, Forbes estimates that the industry would reap nearly $10 billion in additional revenue. [Link]

Gay rights battle puts strain on parties

Chicago Tribune

March 23, 2009

With California's vote last November in favor of the discriminatory marriage ban known as Proposition 8, some gays are saying that bachelorette parties at their bars are becoming more than a minor nuisance. They're a constant reminder that gays don't have equal marriage rights. [Link]

Ellen Interviews Portia de Rossi: "She Also Happens To Be My Wife"

Joe.My.God

March 16, 2009

How many millions in marriage equality ads is this interview worth? [Link]

Mayor Sanders announces lesbian daughter's engagement at rally

Wockner
March 4, 2009
Republican San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders announced the engagement of his daughter Lisa and her girlfriend, Meaghan Yaple, at a large rally Wednesday afternoon. [Link]

Soap Features Daytime TV's First Lesbian Wedding

CNN

February 16, 2009

ABC's All My Children featured daytime TV's first wedding of a lesbian couple when the characters Bianca and Reese exchanged vows. GLAAD's Neil Giuliano: "It's reality. So when we see a lesbian couple getting married on daytime drama, it simply reflects what's happening in the real world." [Link]

Filmmakers roll tape on small-town documentary

The Philadelphia Gay News
February 6, 2009
In their forthcoming documentary, “Out in the Silence,” D.C. filmmakers Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer chronicle the lives of several LGBT residents of Oil City, Wilson’s hometown, after the couple published their wedding announcement in the local paper -- and ignited a firestorm. [Link]

Two U.S. states see boost from gay weddings

Reuters
November 28, 2008
Following the passage of Prop. 8 in Calif., gay couples are now turning to Massachusetts and Connecticut for their weddings, which economists says could shift millions of tourism dollars to those states. [Link]

Same-Sex Couples First Must Find A Willing And Able Cleric

Hartford Courant
November 21, 2008
Though marriage equality has come to Conn., the state's clergy have no legal obligation (nor, in some cases, authority from their churches), to perform gay couples' weddings. [Link]

What It Felt Like to Be Equal

New York Times
November 13, 2008
Many of the gay men and lesbians I spoke or e-mailed with this week didn’t fully realize what a big deal it was to be married either. Until they were. “I don’t think I had realized until then what it felt like to be equal,” Swanson told me. “Paul and I went on a honeymoon in Santa Fe. People would ask and we’d say we’re on our honeymoon; we just got married. We could say it not because it was a political statement but because it was a fact... I don’t feel equal anymore. It was a great feeling, while it lasted.” [Link]

Demise of Same-Sex Weddings Disheartens Businesses

The New York Times
November 7, 2008
Many local business owners in Calif. are worried over the economic impact of Prop. 8's passage: "I have done a gay wedding every week. And so it's very disheartening, because other business is very slow." [Link]

State To Allow Same-Sex Weddings Beginning Nov. 12

The Hartford Courant
November 4, 2008
There will be a moment in her wedding that Geraldine Artis has looked forward to for many years." Suzanne is planning to sing to me. She sings so beautifully," said Artis, 39, of her partner, Suzanne Artis, 37, after learning Monday that same-sex couples would be able to get married in Connecticut beginning Nov. 12. [Link]

The Most Compelling Political Event of the Year

Freakonomics (The New York Times)
October 30, 2008
A touching story about attending a friend's wedding sparks the question of how same-sex couples' weddings have changed the political landscape by leading wedding guests to re-examine their thoughts and feelings. [Link]

Why I got married before California's Prop 8 vote

Newsweek
October 30, 2008
"So why, ultimately, did I go through with it? In retrospect, I can see that it was all about wanting to make a commitment—pledging my devotion to the man I love; showing our family and friends that we're all more alike than we are different; refusing to stand silently by while others try to take away my rights. Only by giving up my independence at the altar, I realized, could I truly declare my independence." [Link]

Ellen on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

glaadBLOG
October 1, 2008
In case you missed it, Ellen DeGeneres appeared on the September 29th broadcast of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Ellen talked with Leno about her recent wedding. (Longer excerpt than the last one we posted) [Link]

Dan Savage: Why We Fight

The Stranger
September 12, 2008
What must it be like for young gays and lesbians to live at a time when—and in a state where—gays and lesbians are fully-enfranchised citizens, and gay relationships are afforded the same respect and protections that straight relationships have always been afforded. To know that love and marriage are possible for you too—not compulsory, gay “radicals,” but possible—must be incredible. [Link]

Wedding announcement

Bay Area Reporter
September 11, 2008
Marriage Equality USA's Molly McKay and Davina Kotulski were married by Assemblyman Mark Leno on their twelfth anniversary before a gathering of family and friends on September 1, 2008. Mazel Tov! [Link]

Ellen's Big Gay Wedding

Newsweek
September 6, 2008
"I never thought I would have that experience of getting married. I didn't think I was missing anything. I just didn't think about it. But to see her for the first time and to cut a wedding cake, that was surreal for me and I got to experience that with our families around us. I didn't realize how special it was until I did it." [Link]

New tribal law allows couple to plan wedding

The Register-Guard
August 21, 2008
Shannon Minter, an attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said the implications for sovereignty are probably limited, because the federal government has the legal right to deny recognition to same-sex couples' marriages under the Federal Defense of Marriage Act passed by Congress in 1996. [Link]