Gay Marriage: The First Time

There is much to be said for a gay wedding. Watching two people have their love endorsed by a State that until quite recently would have locked them away still feels like witnessing history.
I attended my first in Brighton last weekend and I have no right to draw sweeping conclusions. But compared to countless straight weddings there was an extra emotional dimension. A heady delight filled grooms, mothers-of and guests alike and seemed to say: “We never thought we’d see this day.”
Also what fun, what freedom, to take the rites of marriage and pillage whatever conventions you fancy and abandon the rest. Gays have broken the love mould, so who cares if someone is “given away” or you have a best man. I eloped to New York to escape such palaver.
So my friends gave speeches in tandem, like an adorable double act. Then anyone with a story or blessing was welcome, Quaker-style, to pitch in.
A new rite of passage is a blank page upon which to write new traditions. So my friend D — his nose so sensitive it recoils if someone eats KFC three train carriages away — tasked a friend to rush into the register office and spritz it with lavender and rose essential oils. Every wedding needs a “chief ambiencer”. 

Times' columnist Janice Turner.

Err, the first gay marriages in England and Wales are expected to take place next summer.
Also, why can't you even say "your friend's" name?
For shame?

And in other news, American gay married couples can now file joint tax returns. Oh, sweet freedom!