Bubbles, rice, vows
Last Thursday, the Mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, decided to legalize same sex marriages based on grounds that the ban is a form of discrimination and ordered City Hall to start handing out the legal documents to any gay or lesbian couple who wish to get married. The turnout was overwhelming. A long, long queue was wrapped around the city hall on Monday morning, undeterred by the rain and the wind and the promise of varicose veins. Every two minutes or so, a grinning/weepy/stoic couple came out the heavy doors, clutching/brandishing a marriage certificate. A relatively small number of newly wed made out in view of everyone, on the steps; rice was thrown and quickly swept away by careful town hall employees. Little five-year-old Odessa in a pink anorak declared that 'lesbians are getting married today'. 'And some gays, too', her dad added. Of that day, she will remember that soap bubbles were being blown and that it was fun to chase them.

Will allowing gays and lesbians to marry destroy the institution of marriage? Not anymore than it already is by heterosexuals who cheat on each other, who decide to divorce for no reason at all, or by husbands who abuse their spouse. I don't think so. I think it is a positive step for people that love each other and want to make a commitment to each other. Besides that, it gives them the legal rights that their heterosexual counterparts enjoy today.
All those marriage certificates issued these past few days will be annulled, but the fact is that it happened.
As we walked away after an hour or so of cheering and applauding, we passed two men in their fifties, sitting on a low wall. They'd cracked open a bottle of bubbly and were drinking out of tall flutes. Maybe they were crystal. I didn't ask.
All that time, my girlfriend was working. I thought : at least we are in the same city right now.
I had a doughnut and tried not to cry.