Feeling Good About Love

For Feel Good Friday this week, I'd like to tell you about a movement in America that makes me happy.

This is a blog about me and my career selling wedding dresses. Sometimes I write about the brides' stories, and sometimes I'll write about weddings from my perspective. I never intended this to be a political soapbox. Yet I can't help but be happy that thousands of people across America who are blissfully in love are slowly gaining the right to be married. That's right, I'm talking about Gay Marriage.

I have never fully understood the argument against allowing two adults of the same sex to be married. If your faith does not agree with it, then, by all means, don't do it. I would never suggest that a religion, and their clergy, should be required to perform marriage ceremonies for same sex couples. But I do believe that representatives of the government, and clergy from certain accepting faiths should be allowed to perform a legal marriage ceremony. I have also heard the argument that gay unions are biologically unproductive; that the point of a marriage is to procreate, and if people began forming same-sex unions then the future of the human race and its procreation would hang in the balance. Okay, but does that mean we need to render birth control illegal as well, after all, a couple that chooses not to have children at all is "endangering the human race" as much as a homosexual couple.

So away from the politics for a moment, and fast forward to my store. Some might say that I have a vested interest in the making of gay marriage legal. After all, now I have the opportunity to sell the happy couple TWO dresses instead of one! I admit, this is true! I have known several women couples through my store, most of whom have both bought their dresses from me, (although some have had one wear a dress and the other wear a woman's tux) but I think of one couple in particular. I really enjoyed working with them. For ease of conversation, I'll call them Nora and Colleen. As I was helping Nora try on dresses in the dressing room, I got to share a moment with them. As I laced Nora into the dress that eventually became "the one" I was privy to both the look of expectant hope on her face as she turned to face her fiancee, as well as the look of pure love and pleasure on Colleen's face as she saw her intended looking so beautiful and they both registered that they had the freedom to make their love official. How can such affection not be celebrated, and how can this not make me happy today?