Juxtaposing Emotions

After the marriage ceremony of AL and AW, I experienced two juxtaposing realms of emotion – joy, pride, and happiness along with a bit of sorrow, frustration, and apathy. The positive emotions make sense, but I wasn’t expecting the negative ones. It came down to the secrecy. They were married without anyone else knowing. They had to hide their intimate touches and when they walked out of the church, it wasn’t to people cheering and throwing rice or releasing doves or whatever they did in the 1800s, rather - it was as if they were any other parishioners.

But then I remember how blissful AL and AW were afterwards, smiling and laughing and joking. They knew the value of their relationship and the love they found in each other, then they celebrated that love with their own marriage ceremony. I also remembered the countless lesbians who now visit that very church and celebrate their marriage hundreds of years later. So much better than rice being tossed at them, right? Right!