Transgender Grooms
I am in lurve with Ariel over at Offbeat Bride, because once again, she manages to handle a sticky question with a level of social grace that would put Anne Landers to shame.
An Offbeat Bride reader wrote in to ask how to handle the fact of her partner’s transition with regards to announcing their engagement. Ariel says, “…you probably want to face the issue with…transparency. People are going to talkâyou might as well own the conversation! Plus, if you get all the questions out of the way before the wedding, then people can just focus on the beauty and magic of the actual event.”
I admit that I read Offbeat Bride daily, because hi, my name is Colleen and I am a wedding-a-holic. Part of it is because I do wedding photography on a semi-professional basis. At least, that’s what I tell people. The truth of it is that I LOVE LOVE LOVE weddings. I get totally geektacular about them, and can talk to someone for hours about their wedding plans, or what their wedding was like. Michael (who I swear to god, I really will fill you in about soon, promise!) sent me a link to 5-year-old photos from his wedding. I looked at each and every one of them. (And, because I’m a sap, got all swoony looking at how in love he and his wife were then, and clearly still are now.) Sure, yeah, doing wedding photograph contributes to the obsession, but if I’m being really really honest? I’m just that much of a girliegirl.
Anyway, if you’re planning a Big Gay Wedding or a wedding that is going to be something off the beaten path (or know someone who is), you MUST add Offbeat Bride to your RSS feed reader. Ariel is truly inspired and awesome, and will always have excellent advice for navigating tricky wedding situations regarding gender or identity, with class.
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:15 pm
ohh, me too about the wedding addict. I just love, love weddings.
October 4th, 2008 at 6:46 am
It’s nice to know there are queer girls who are…classically excited about weddings. Myself, the whole issue is so political it makes smoke come out of my ears. Hopefully I’ll grow out of it soon and then I can coo over all the cute brides too
[Yeah, it totally gets me pissy sometimes looking through wedding stuff, because it's all so straight-focused. That's why I love sites like Offbeat Bride; while the bulk of stuff there is still straight, she still has a lot of content with queers getting hitched, and the Offbeat Bride community is VERY queer-friendly. I think that's why I pretty much exclusively read OBB for wedding stuff these days; even her straight weddings still manage to feel pretty queer. -colleen]