As I've been reading about Friends at New England Yearly Meeting grappling with LGBT issues regarding FUM's sexual ethics personnel policy, I am moved to share my joy in our monthly meeting's support, acceptance, and engagement with the lesbian and gay members and attenders. A & I were married 4 weeks & 2 days ago "under the care of the Meeting," "in the manner of Friends," the whole nine yards.... It is marvelous, wonderful, amazing to be taken for granted. To follow a process already in place. To use the same words (marriage, wedding, wife) that other people use. We had some variations, to be sure: our "best girls" ran the show unobtrusively and our overseers read a passage about same-sex marriage as they explained the Quaker process to those unfamiliar with Friends' weddings. I was most moved by the verbal ministry of one of A's aunts when she spoke about love and partnership and welcomed me to the family, because I had had an impression that she was not friendly to same-sex relationships. Yet she, too, was moved to take me/us for granted. Maybe Friends in FUM will be able to unite someday to take us for granted--so that we will no longer need to marvel, wonder, or be amazed.
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Congratulations! It sounds like it was a wonderful wedding.
I do hope same-sex marriage becomes legal in your country soon. Politics is a silly business, isn't it?
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