Glowing, Growing and Knowing
The air is chilling nicely outside as fall settles in. Pride festivals, marriage equality marches and an abundance of fabulous gay weddings have already made this a season to love for 2010.
In our third issue of Equally Wed magazine, we’ve continued to work hard to address issues that really matter for both your gay wedding planning and all the fun that goes along with that, as well as the legal and emotional aspects of it.
We’re very intent on making sure you have a fun and romantic but safe honeymoon, where you don’t feel endangered or judged. Our News Editor Katherine Dean scoured the globe researching the top 10 worst honeymoon destinations for gays and lesbians. Seriously, someone could get hurt going to any of these places.
As for where to go, we sent travel writer Melissa Varnadoe to both Amsterdam and Lisbon, Portugal, to find out how gay-friendly each hot spot is (they passed with flying rainbow colors). And Hope Philbrick reported back to us about the cozy gay-owned B&B in Baltimore for a shorter romantic getaway.
Planning your wedding—a gay one, especially—takes patience and courage. In our technology-soaked interactive stratosphere, writer Candace Walsh discovered just how much the Internet and social media have helped—and hurt—the emotional aspects of gay wedding planning.
For me, someone who’s always been out and proud since the day I kissed my first girl, I’ve never thought much about keeping my relationships with women, engagement, wedding—and now pregnancy—out of my regular Facebook announcements of what’s going on in my life. Friends, family, colleagues and random people who I’ve met along the way either deal with it, hide my status updates or delete me. But when those closest to you ignore your important posts, it can cause a great deal of pain, as Walsh found out.
Stepping out and being yourself and having your big gay wedding can be as rewarding as life itself—and then some—for a gay, lesbian or transgender couple. Because not only are you standing up in front of your family and friends outwardly committing to one person for the rest of your lives, you’re also standing up for who you are. This takes bravery, as Carol and Kesha of Atlanta learned when planning their Southern wedding. The couple was turned down by multiple vendors uninterested in being part of a lesbian wedding. Not everyone has to experience such heartbreak, thank goodness. Of the rest of the four Real Weddings couples featured in our Fall issue, Fernan and Jesse in San Francisco, California girls Kpoené and Anne and Floridians Elysa and Marie, their big days went off without a hitch. If you’re discovering just how hard it is to find gay-friendly wedding vendors in your area, please check out our constantly growing Local Resources, a trustworthy guide of vetted wedding vendors throughout the United States and Canada.
Please enjoy our Fall issue, and let us know what you think. We are listening!
Kirsten Palladino
