Some people dread that long march down the aisle. They just want to get to the alcohol-infused reception as quickly as possible. But this weekend, thousands of same-sex marriage supporters are looking forward to marching for marriage. They’ll don tuxes and wedding dresses to cross the Brooklyn and Golden Gate Bridges at the Seventh Annual Wedding March for Marriage Equality.
In New York City, participants will start at the foot of Manhattan to cross the Brooklyn Bridge, while participants in San Francisco will simultaneously march across the Golden Gate Bridge. (Thank goodness it’s not an 8 a.m. EST start time — that would be cruel.) The bridges are meant to symbolize the gap between the rights available to opposite sex and same sex couples and, of course, attempts to bridge that gap.
In San Francisco, participants can have their photo taken as cake toppers on a giant wedding cake while they toast with free Champagne, while New York participants will end the day with a wedding reception in Brooklyn. Oh, and did we mention this big, gay, pseudo wedding is FREE? You can thank Marriage Equality USA (MEUSA) in collaboration with more than 100 organizations for that.
Jokes aside, marriage inequality is a serious issue, and although this weekend’s festivities are free, donations will be gladly accepted for the cause. According to MEUSA, same sex couples and their families are denied 1,324 rights guaranteed by civil marriage — rights that are not protected under civil unions or domestic partnerships. Those rights run the gamut from access to Social Security, housing, veterans’ and military benefits to immigration and even intellectual property rights.
Currently, same-sex marriage can only be legally performed in five states, plus the District of Columbia: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and New Hampshire. In New York, as of May 14, 2008, all state agencies must recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions (such as Mass.), and state courts now recognize same-sex marriages performed in Canada for the purposes of public benefits, inheritance and divorce.
California was the second state to allow same-sex marriage, but only for a brief period between June 16 and Nov. 5, 2008 when Proposition 8 was passed banning it. Prop 8 has since been ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge, who nonetheless temporarily stayed his ruling. Oral arguments will be heard on the issue in mid-December. In the meantime, no same-sex couples are getting legally hitched in the Golden State.
If you’d like to have a big, gay matrimonial time this weekend, you can register here for the Brooklyn Bridge march, here for the San Francisco march. There are also smaller events being held in Rochester, Buffalo and Albany, N.Y., for which you can register here.
Photo by CarbonNYC via Flickr.