No NYC Big Fat Gay Wedding on Today?…then how about tomorrow?
GLAAD is protesting that the Today Show’s annual summer wedding contest is not allowing gay couples to enter. Isn’t this the same old Rockefeller Plaza three-ring nuptials they have been showcasing since Katie Couric was a flower girl? In New York City, right? Where the bride and groom faithfully hold up that very legal Empire State marriage license for pictorial and now YouTube posterity? This is really a bit of deja vu as I remember joking with a NYC friend, as the New York State Senate was voting on marriage rights last December, wondering what effect this will have on the annual Today Show wedding contest. Nothing…as the vote was 38 to 24…against.
I read this morning that GLAAD now has a meeting with the Today Show executives. I am interested in what they will say. I support GLAAD’s efforts, however, the whole legality thing makes it difficult. I compare it to me going to Barney’s and protesting that the salespeople won’t let me shop lift. Not that I have EVER done that before. Or better yet, it’s like me lamenting my legal inability to smoke medical marijuana in New York and then asking for public signatures allowing me to toke away. I have a prescription from home. The point, however, is arguably mute. It’s illegal, and it gives those in authority a more than excellent excuse to haul my ass away or in this case, legal-ease out of an uncomfortable situation. The Today Show tweeted earlier that they were listening, but gave this link from Mediaite as a rebuttal.
It is my hope that the GLAAD conversations with NBC, and the obvious media focus, will get the next constructive conversation started. What we should be asking the NBC powers that be is what is stopping the Today Show from holding its next summer wedding in Washington, DC or Vermont? How about a 4th of July wedding in Boston? Since public opinion on gay marriage is now polling in the greater than 50% part of the curve, why limit yourselves to the discriminatory confines of New York? Surely, if you can send Matt Lauer to the most remote and far-reaching corners of the world, then Iowa seems to be the next logical step. Right?
I have read that the Today Show said they were trying to keep costs down by staying local. While I applaud them for being frugal and green, I boo their lack of foresight. The producers know, or should know, their reach is national. New Yorkers in general may not have an issue with same-sex couples being left out, but the national audience, especially those viewers in states that perform same-sex marriages certainly do. It should not have taken GLAAD to bring this to their attention, the Today Show should have addressed it up front. I hope that the conversation with GLAAD makes them aware that WE are watching and that WE notice. Having said all that, I do think that they have every right to hold the contest locally and if same-sex marriages are not legal in NY then do not include them, but say so in the contest rules and on the entry form. I’m in for the 4th of July wedding in Boston..all I need now is a willing bride.
I like the idea of Boston, too. There are many ways to hold a “green” wedding all the while showing your red, white, and blue.
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