Tuesday, August 29, 2006
My First Gay Wedding
...it scanned too nicely with the idea of My Fat Greek Wedding to let it pass....and it was, this dear wedding of Ed and Sandy, my first gay wedding...I was amazed to realize that was true. And it was meaningful,on several levels....not the least of which was that simply being witness to it was a gentle act of civil disobedience, given the political decisions made against gay marriages lately...and the female Rabbi, a terrifically warm and fuzzy young woman who leads a major gay synagogue in the City, made ample reference to that fact: that it was a seriously Jewish and gay wedding and in that particular distinction, two minorities were being honored.
She even joked charmingly that if anyone in the room had never been to neither a Jewish or a gay wedding, she promised we would not make them do anything odd or unusual or that they had never done before....the crowd was warm, and the ceremony was full of laughter...which is so very Ed and Sandy.
When Peter and I pulled up in front of the 130 West 56th Street entrance to City Center, there was such a crowd going inside that it looked like something theatrical was about to raise its curtain. Also , so very Ed and Sandy. We joined the crowd (with our large and heavy wedding gift, for which I had laboriously composed a long funny poem), and eventually got upstairs to the 4th floor, where the crowd really thickened....all the food was on one end of the hall and of course that is where everyone was clumped...and we are talking 200 people here...stuffed into an old ballet studio....but it was warm and friendly and dear and so very much like the warmth and loving quality of Ed and Sandy....we got something cold to drink, and found seats at a table near the rear of the hall....I saw so many people from my 30 year friendship with Ed...yet, the hall was so crowded it was difficult to navigate anywhere near them....even Josephine Forseberg was there from our Second City days in Chicago in the 60's but I never did find her, though i tried.
Ed collects and retains friends like material for a scrapbook. He throws nothing away.
Both of the men looked gorgeous in their tuxedos and ornate silver-embroidered yarmelkes, and both of those gorgeous faces gleaming with happiness and welcome...they each looked about age 13! Such sweetness.
And after a tearful ceremony under the chupa (which was made from Ed's late father's prayer shawl), they hugged and kissed and were Mr. and Mr. Edward and Sanford Linderman Levitt!!!
The crowd cheered and yelled Mazel Tov at the top of their lungs after the two glasses were crushed (two glasses becaus there were two grooms)...and the long dancing singing line full of all of us ushered the married men out of the hall.
We could have been in Israel.
It was traditional and Old World. And beautiful.
Mazel Tov and Congratulations, Ed and Sandy!
She even joked charmingly that if anyone in the room had never been to neither a Jewish or a gay wedding, she promised we would not make them do anything odd or unusual or that they had never done before....the crowd was warm, and the ceremony was full of laughter...which is so very Ed and Sandy.
When Peter and I pulled up in front of the 130 West 56th Street entrance to City Center, there was such a crowd going inside that it looked like something theatrical was about to raise its curtain. Also , so very Ed and Sandy. We joined the crowd (with our large and heavy wedding gift, for which I had laboriously composed a long funny poem), and eventually got upstairs to the 4th floor, where the crowd really thickened....all the food was on one end of the hall and of course that is where everyone was clumped...and we are talking 200 people here...stuffed into an old ballet studio....but it was warm and friendly and dear and so very much like the warmth and loving quality of Ed and Sandy....we got something cold to drink, and found seats at a table near the rear of the hall....I saw so many people from my 30 year friendship with Ed...yet, the hall was so crowded it was difficult to navigate anywhere near them....even Josephine Forseberg was there from our Second City days in Chicago in the 60's but I never did find her, though i tried.
Ed collects and retains friends like material for a scrapbook. He throws nothing away.
Both of the men looked gorgeous in their tuxedos and ornate silver-embroidered yarmelkes, and both of those gorgeous faces gleaming with happiness and welcome...they each looked about age 13! Such sweetness.
And after a tearful ceremony under the chupa (which was made from Ed's late father's prayer shawl), they hugged and kissed and were Mr. and Mr. Edward and Sanford Linderman Levitt!!!
The crowd cheered and yelled Mazel Tov at the top of their lungs after the two glasses were crushed (two glasses becaus there were two grooms)...and the long dancing singing line full of all of us ushered the married men out of the hall.
We could have been in Israel.
It was traditional and Old World. And beautiful.
Mazel Tov and Congratulations, Ed and Sandy!
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