ZeitGAYst

Same-Sex Marriage Begins in Massachusetts (May 17, 2004)

The first same-sex marriages in the U.S. took place in Massachusetts on May 17, 2004.  This was six months after the state's Supreme Court ruled that a ban on such unions was unconstitutional.  Since then, eleven other states and Washington, D.C. have also made gay marriage legal.  (The Netherlands was the first country to legalize gay unions in 2001.) 

 

 

For three months in 2008, the state of California also allowed same-sex marriages, until voters narrowly voted against them later that year.  However, any marriages that were performed in those months are still valid.  In August 2010 a Federal District Court in San Francisco overturned Proposition 8 but resumption of marriages is on hold pending appeal.  (The case was argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2013.)  

 

The latest marriage figures for Massachusetts are through 2010 and they show that more than 13,000 same-sex couples had gotten hitched, comprising 7% of all marriages in the state during that period.       

 

Lily 2.0: "Modern Family's" Pint-Size Diva-In-Training

When the sitcom Modern Family debuted four years ago, Lily, the adopted Vietnamese daughter of Cameron and Mitchell, was a mere toddler who never spoke - a human version of baby Maggie from The Simpsons.  Then in Season 3, a new Lily, who was more animated and old enough to speak a few sentences, was brought on board.  Now in Season 4 she has blossomed into quite the sarcastic quipster - a tiny Dorothy Parker (or Fran Leibowitz), if you will. 

 

Lily has certainly become her gay daddies' daughter, and brings to mind the Sondheim song Children Will Listen from Into the Woods.  (In one episode she tells her dads, who were running late, to "hurry up, ladies.")  And while Cam and Mitchell find her zingers amusing, at the same time they are a little bit horrified. 

 

After two seasons in which the original Lily was as expressive as a block of wood, Lily 2.0 may revitalize the show, which is going through a transition as Luke, Manny, Alex and Haley grow older and become less adorable.  One can only imagine the handful this "diva in training" will become as a teenager.  No doubt the religious right views Lily as a "demon seed". 

 

 

Same-Sex Marriage Gets Its Due on "The Simpsons" (February 20, 2005)

On the February 20, 2005 episode of The Simpsons (titled "There's Something About Marrying") same-sex marriage was legalized in Springfield as a way to attract tourists.  This results in Marge's sister, Patty Bouvier, coming out and announcing her intention to marry her partner Veronica, a pro golfer.  When Homer learns how much he can earn performing same-sex ceremonies he becomes a minister and marries Patty (which is ironic since Patty, as well as her twin sister Selma, have nothing but contempt for Homer).  Alas, it was later revealed that Veronica was a man.

 

 

 

Having same-sex marriage as a storyline on a mainstream TV show (a favorite with young men) was an important milestone in the fight for legalization of same-sex marriage.  The attendant publicity brought awareness up a few more notches - anathema to the religious right, which frets whenever gay issues gain exposure.      

 

 

This episode of The Simpsons aired a little more than a year after Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex unions.  And it just so happens that there is a city named Springfield in the state.  However, the show's writers have never indicated in which state their Springfield is located (there are 38 cities, towns and townships named Springfield in the U.S.).

 

(For whatever reason Season 16 isn't yet available on DVD, just seasons 1 thru 13.)

A Lesbian Wedding on "Friends" (January 18, 1996)

Ross' ex-wife Carol (pictured, far right) and her lesbian partner Susan were married on the January 18, 1996 episode of NBC's hit sitcom Friends.  And because Carol's parents refused to attend the wedding, Ross walked her down the aisle.  The ceremony was performed by Candace Gringrich (pictured, center), Newt's lesbian half-sister who rose to the periphery of celebritydom after Newt became Speaker of the House.

 

Surprisingly, this episode's audience was no larger than usual for the popular show nor was there much of a fuss about the episode.  Eight months later President Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) into law.  And on January 18 of 2004 the lesbian drama The L Word debuted on Showtime. 

President Clinton Signs DOMA Into Law (September 21, 1996)

It was bad enough that President Clinton began his first term by enacting the misguided "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, but as the end of his term approached he signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act on September 21, 1996 (just in time for Election Day).  It allowed states to refuse recognition of same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions and also prevented the federal government from recognizing the validity of such marriages.

 

Sixteen months later we'd see how the president defended the sacred institution of his "traditional" marriage when his philandering with Monica Lewinsky was uncovered.  

 

 

Since the signing of DOMA thirty-two states (accounting for nearly 80% of the U.S. population) have added amendments to their constitutions that define marriage as the union between a man and woman.  Nonetheless, eight years later Massachusetts became the first state to legalize and perform the first gay marriages.  And by the end of May 2013, eleven other states and D.C. had also legalized same-sex unions.  

 

18 years after it was enacted "Don't Ask Don't Tell" was finally repealed.  How long before DOMA is also repealed?  In the past few years state courts in Massachusetts and California have found the law unconstitutional and in 2011 the Obama administration announced that it would no longer defend its implementation.  For the time being, however, further action to implement repeal of DOMA appears to be stalled.   

Male Penguins Marry on "Parks & Recreation" (September 17, 2009)

The sitcom Parks & Recreation stars SNL alum Amy Poehler and debuted on NBC's Thursday schedule in the spring of 2009.  For the first episode of its second season, Poehler's character, Leslie Knope, married two penguins, Tux and Flipper, at the Pawnee (Indiana) Zoo - unaware that both were male.  Hilarity ensued. 

 

This innocent publicity stunt incensed the local "family values" organization but Leslie refused their demand that she anul the marriage.  This made her a hero of Pawnee's gay community, including co-worker April's gay boyfriend and his boyfriend, and they honored her at the local gay bar, The Bulge (where one of the songs played was Lady Gaga's Poker Face).  As a further tribute they created a knock-off version of the famous Obama poster replacing the word "Hope" with "Knope".  The next day she commented how she liked being the "queen of the gays".    

 

However, to defuse the situation in town Leslie finally arranged to send Tux and Flipper to a zoo in Iowa because, as Leslie noted, same-sex marriage is legal there.  

 

"Modern Family's" Cameron & Mitchell - Neutered for Network TV?

Cam and Mitchell, the gay dads from ABC's hit sitcom Modern Family, are a funny, bickering couple - with zero physical chemistry between them.  While I can easily picture the show's two other couples, Claire and Phil and Jay and Gloria, "getting busy" with each other, I can't say the same for the asexual gay duo.  (I can even picture Mr. French and Uncle Bill from Family Affair getting hot and sweaty with each other before these two.)  I don't know who'd be doing what to whom and I think it would end before it started because of fussing from both sides.  

 

And truth be told I don't even think they're that happy a couple.  Their first child, Lily (as lively as a block of wood, since replaced by a more lifelike child), was probably adopted for a diversion and now even she's not enough because at the end of last season Mitchell mentioned to Cam of his desire to have another child - perhaps to assuage their gnawing dissatisfaction with each other? 

 

Nonetheless, it's gratifying to see a gay couple living openly as a family on TV.  I just wish they didn't come across as a couple of spinster sisters.  For the time being it appears "heat" between couples on network TV is reserved for heterosexuals.      

 

The New York Times Publishes its First Same-Sex Wedding Announcement (September 1, 2002)

The first mainstream newspaper to publish an announcement about a same-sex commitment ceremony was Washington state's Everett Herald in 1990.  The following year the Minneapolis Star-Tribune became the first major paper to do so.  Then eleven years later, on September 1, 2002, the New York Times ran its first such announcement in Sunday's vaunted "Weddings & Celebrations" section.  Since many consider the Times the nation's newspaper of record, its decision received considerable attention.  The happy couple whose commitment ceremony was announced was Daniel Gross and Steven Goldstein. 

 

Between 2002 and 2008 the number of papers accepting same-sex wedding/commitment announcements increased tenfold to more than 1,000.  However a study by GLAAD found that only one-third of those papers had actually received submissions.  The study was done in 2008 so the figure may now be closer to 40%.  Nonetheless, it suggests that not every same-sex couple getting hitched wants to make a public announcement.  

 

In the meantime, now that same-sex marriage is legal in New York state, perhaps Daniel and Steven are planning a wedding ceremony here (assuming they're still together, of course). 

Hallmark Introduces Greeting Cards Celebrating Same-Sex Marriage (August 21, 2008)

You can't get much more heartland-American than Hallmark, so it was quite a pleasant surprise in the summer of 2008 when the Kansas City-based company introduced a line of greeting cards to celebrate same-sex marriage and commitment ceremonies.  Small, independently owned card companies already had such cards, but having the nation's largest greeting card company jump on board, and relatively early on, was somewhat of a ringing endorsement (however, its stores were not required to carry them).  Perhaps the impetus was California's legalizing same-sex marriage a few months earlier - as shortlived as it would be.  This came five years after Brides's Magazine, Conde Nast's revered wedding "bible", ran a full page article on same-sex weddings. 

 

In May of 2012, shortly after President Obama publicaly endorsed same-sex unions, Target came out with a line of same-sex wedding cards created by Carlton Cards, a division of American Greetings (which touts itself as the world's largest public greeting card company, as opposed to the much larger Hallmark, which is privately held).   

Same-Sex Marriage Legalized in Canada (July 20, 2005)

Canada became the fourth nation to legalize same-sex marriage on July 20, 2005 (following the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain).  By the time the legislation, known as the Civil Marriage Act, was approved, all but two of the country's provinces had already passed legislation in favor of same-sex unions in their jurisdictions (Ontario was the first province to do so on June 10, 2003).  

 

Since then, nine more countries have legalized same-sex marriage.  In the U.S., despite the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and constitutional ammendments in thirty-two states that restrict marriage to male and female couples, same-sex couples can now marry in twelve states and the District of Columbia.  (And president Obama announced his support of gay marriage in May 2012).  The combined population of these twelve states is 56 million, comprising 18% of the U.S. population.