gay marriage – Wis[s]e Words

Ten Years of gay marriage — Holland still not washed away by the tears of an angry god

Published on April 1, 2011

picture from the World's first gay marriage

You think what with the monotonous regularity God strikes immoral countries, at least according to Yankee fundamentalist wankers, Holland would’ve long ago been wiped out by a superflood/earthquake/volcanic eruption combination for being the first country to make gay marriage legally the same as “normal” marriages. Yet ten years later, we’re still here, gay people can still marry if they want to and no sign of any wrath of god yet.

One of the few times I’ve genuinely been proud of my country. No nonsense, no hysteria, just a (belated) recognition that yes, there is no reason why gender should matter in who you could marry. The only thing that mars it is that civil servants who have problems with performing gay marriages can refuse to do the work they’re paid to do. Ten years should be enough of that nonsense.

Five years ago.

Five years of gay marriage: Amsterdam still no Sodom and Gomorrah

Published on April 1, 2006

picture from the World's first gay marriage

Well, not more so than usual. On this day exactly, five years ago, mayor Job Cohen performed the first true gay marriages in the world; not registered partnerships or church marriages unrecognised by the state, but real honest marriages. With that the last remaining significant legal barrier to full acceptance of homosexuality was removed and gay people could finally enjoy all the rights straight couples had enjoyed
for centuries.

All of this may not make much difference with everyday acceptance, but even from a purely practical point of view, let alone a symbolic one, it was a huge step forward. As a married couple you do enjoy priviledges single people, in a longterm relationship or not, do not, for example in tax and inheritance law. This was already available for gay people through the earlier civil partnership, but that didn;t carry the huge symbolic weight marriage still has. So said some of the gay couples interviewed in the Amsterdam weekly this week that being married helped a lot in the acceptance of their family, as that makes it easier for their family to see their relationship as real and serious.

It’s not a subject I daily think about, but I have to say I am quite proud of my country for being the first to recognise gay marriage, though I’d wish it had done so earlier. It’s about the last true gesture of tolerance, we’ve had here, before the Long Night of Fortuyn, Balkenende, van Gogh, Wilders and Verdonk started.

Couple 243

Published on May 19, 2004

Last Monday, gay marriage became legal in the US state of Massachusetts, which immediately led to a run on marriage licences there, in towns like Cambridge. One couple who did so, couple 243, blogged their experience. It is a very emotional, happy piece:

We paid our $15 and walked up the stairs to the exit. People shook our hands on the way out, and as we walked out the front door at 4:15am we were greeted by a small cheering crowd.

“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” they yelled as we got to the bottom of the nearly-deserted steps. We kissed, posed for a picture and drove home through the nearly deserted streets.

(Brian)

[…]

I have a hard time gauging what my emotions were as we started running up the gauntlet — the avenue that led from the sidewalk on Mass Ave. up to the front doors of City Hall — to find that there were relatively few couples seeking licenses — fewer than the thousand I might have expected — but that there were about three thousand just *watching* — a mass of people singing spontaneously, chanting, waving signs, all with their own little political agendas to defeat bush or proclaim love for gays or just be happy that we were getting what they had rights to — a mass overfilling the lawn in front of City Hall, filling the sidewalk on both sides of Mass Ave, and stretching tendrils up and down several blocks, towards both Harvard and Central. As soon as Brian grabbed my hand and said let’s give it a try, and started running, they all started cheering, clapping, screaming. I did not expect that.

(Aaron

It’s hard to imagine the impact this has in the US when you’re living in a country where gay marriage has been legal for a number of years now. Where it was realised more as the logical end result of the emancipation process rather than as something people had to fight hard for. It must feel so good to finally be able to proclaim your love for each other the way you want to, knowing there are so many who would keep that from you; even if Bush pushes through a constitutional amedament tomorrow making it illegal again, the moment itself can never be taken from you anymore.

Good luck and congratulations to Brian and Aaron; may they and all those other couples who can finally
marry have a long and happy marriage.