Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Traditional Marriage, what is this?

Check this out ! What a classic...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntC0PNHFRgU

But more importantly, it raises a very important issue of the traditions we choose to follow in this day and age. Do we still wear chastity belts and pay off the parents of the bride with goats? Do we still think that lesbian and gay relationships are not as valuable or as "right" as heterosexual ones?

We have chosen to legally marry at a Registry Office as we do not agree with the part of the ceremony where it is required by law that "the Monitum" must be read aloud (without which the marriage is not valid) the part that hits our nerves is the part which reads:

"Marriage, according to the law in Australia, is the union of a
man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily
entered into for life"

We have felt very strongly about this declaration and the political anti-gay statement it makes for quite sometime. And I'm sure that some reading will find it quite a shock that this has been one of the reasons we have put off getting married legally for some time. Once we finally got to the decision that we wanted to be legally married, we came up with the alternative of having this read only in the presence of our witnesses and ourselves.

Due to the strong feelings of our immediate family, we have decided in the end to have our official marriage ceremony performed in front of our parents and siblings only. Present will be us, our bridal party (of 4), my mum & dad, D's mum and dad, my brother and D's sister. D's mother & sister felt quite strongly that this was the "actual wedding" and that they would not want to miss this formality. However, it is known to them that this is just a legal formality to us.

Our wish is that our other guests understand that we do not want this statement read in front of them as it goes against our beliefs, and that we have chosen to marry officially not in their presence. They will be included in a more heartfelt and "real" ceremony where we declare our true vows to each other in front of them and then perform a "Hand-fasting Ceremony" which involves members of our community giving their personal blessing to our union.

This is only one of the many things we have chosen to do that doesn't go with "tradition"

2 comments:

  1. Love it. Love your combined commitment to things you're passionate about. Love the way you've managed to approach the situation so that all the needs and wants are met, by so many people (yourselves, your family, The Law(tm)).

    You guys are inspiring. My thoughts and love will be with you both this weekend!

    -- Kat / Nicola

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  2. Aaawwwwwww.... thanks Nic !
    You're so sweet ;-)

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