I don't want to bore you all with photos from our wedding ceremony yesterday. But some of you asked if I had more photos to share, so I'll do so now. These were all taken by a photographer, Marcus Rachard, who's a friend of our friends Steve and Allan (the other Steve from yesterday, hrh), and who happened to be recording Steve and Allan's wedding, and then took photos of ours out of the goodness of his heart.
The photo at the top of the posting is Rev. Wendell Griffen of New Millennium Baptist church who, as I told you yesterday, did the wedding ceremony. Plus one attractive head with a full complement of hair, and one balding head.
And then there's this photo of Steve (my Steve, hrh) and me with Wendell before he changed from his judge's robes to his clergy robes:
And, finally, Wendell signing the marriage certificate after he performed the marriage:
It was a truly remarkable day, and I can't think of any blessing I would have chosen for it greater than having our friend Wendell Griffen perform the marriage ceremony. He's someone who has advocated for years for justice and inclusion for people of color, people on the socioeconomic margins of society, LGBTI human beings, and others. And he has often paid a steep price for his advocacy — for walking the gospel he talks.
At his Slacktivist site today, Fred Clark celebrates Wendell Griffen (and I am delighted Fred has done so). As he notes, Wendell told the Arkansas Times yesterday,
I was asked to be an officiant by people who I've known and been involved with issues of equality for years. I was glad to say yes. I married a couple named Thomas and William. It was a blessing—just like every marriage ceremony I've done. Excitement, anxiety, I don't care how many times they prepare for it, they trip over the lines. Wonderful.
It was the same, but it was different in a much bigger kind of way. This is historic. These are people who have loved each other and been committed to each other for years. I've got a ceremony I'm doing for a couple that's been together longer than I've been married to my wife—43 years. But they have never been able to live openly as married people. This is historic because now they are open. They are married. They're not just together, they're married.
Equality is always an arc and the arc of justice always bends toward equality.
As Fred notes, my determination to photo-bomb every photo I could yesterday (love that word, which I didn't know previously) kept me very busily occupied for hours! I'd surely be grateful, though, if the photographers had stopped using those wide-angle lenses that added about 100 pounds to my already more than zaftig frame. In the second photo to which Fred points, which I photo-bombed, I'm smiling at that little girl with her two daddies, who was perfectly color-coordinated and wearing adorable tiny pink sandals.
I'm also so grateful to Frank Strong at Letters to the Catholic Right for the kind note of congratulations at his blog site yesterday, too.