 "Photo: Illustration by Jimmy Purcell")
California’s prohibition of gay marriage creates inequality and validates prejudice. In California any two people can marry regardless of race, religion, or social status…unless they’re gay. Doesn’t something seem wrong about that?
On April 4, I performed my first wedding ceremony. I married two friends who are not very religious and wanted to have a ceremony to tie the knot.
Since they heard I was ordained (I was ordained on www.themonastery.org through Universal Life Church), they asked me to perform their ceremony. It would also mean more to them to have a friend marry them than some random priest.
Since this was my first marriage ceremony I was going to perform, I wanted to make sure everything would be done right. There would honestly be nothing worse than finding out that this marriage is not official.
I called the county clerk, city hall and anyone else I could think of to find out exactly what I had to do. I found out that in the state of California you don’t even have to be ordained as a minister to perform a wedding.
The only requirements are that you be 18 or older and that the couple getting married understands that this marriage is legal. Besides that, the only thing needed is the marriage license, which is given to the couple getting married by the state.
Now what does this have to do with gay marriage? Well, I realize now that the only thing needed to marry two people in California is a license by the state: no priest, no church, nothing more than a state document, a witness and someone over 18 to marry the couple.
So I ask the state of California, how is gay marriage a religious issue if marriage can avoid religion in this state?
In late 2008, California passed Proposition 8. This made only marriages between a man and a woman recognized as valid. The reason why this was passed was mainly the argument that marriage is a religious ceremony and letting gay people get married would change the definition of a religious ceremony; however, I performed a non-religious ceremony to join two people in marriage, and all we needed was a piece of paper from the state.
This is not a religious issue; this is a state issue and there is no separation between church and state here. This is nothing but inequality built on prejudice and politicians having deep pockets from religious organizations.
With this said, I will publicly defy the state’s laws and am willing to perform any gay marriage anyone needs performed. This will not legally be accepted by the state, because they will not hand out marriage licenses to gay couples. But this bond is between two people — and the state cannot stand in their way.
Contact me, Reverend Frost, for a wedding.
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