In an historic event on Sunday, January 18, a same-sex couple that has been together for 12 years was finally able to get legally married. Tom Lanting, 34, and Iain Robertson, 39, officially tied the knot in a pagan ceremony known as a handfasting. Scotland, unlike any other area of the U.K., allows pagans and other non-Christian religious groups to legally perform weddings.
In an interview with BBC News, the couple said,
“Getting married in a legal pagan ceremony means so much to both of us.”
“The new equal marriage law means that we finally have equal recognition and acceptance of our relationship, and it opens the door for all LGBTI couples to take the same step.”
The ceremony was officiated by Louise Park, presiding officer for the Pagan Federation (Scotland). The Pagan Federation (Scotland) has been authorized to perform non-Christian weddings since 2005 and has conducted hundreds of marriages for heterosexual couples.
“Equality for people of all faiths is something that is very dear to the vast majority of pagans,? she said, ?and the Pagan Federation (Scotland) has made equal marriage for all pagans in Scotland one of our biggest campaigns over the last 10 years.?
The ceremony was held in a magical setting in an underground cellar, Marlin’s Wynd, which is a former marketplace originally constructed in the 16th century near Edinburgh, Scotland. The ceremony included the traditional handfasting cord, used to gently bind the hands of the couple to signify their connection to one another. The couple also shared Mead, a honey wine, and then jumped over a broom to seal the bonding.
Meanwhile, in America…
There are currently 37 states in the United States that allow same sex couples to wed in legally recognized marriages, including all the trappings. Joint income tax filings, insurance coverage as a family, adoption in some instances, and of course, even divorce.
Although a few of these states are still awaiting final court rulings on appeals, the wave has begun and has reached tsunami size in a very short period of time. There was a time when people exclaimed that they would never see the legalization of same-sex marriage in their lifetimes. But yet, here we are, on the eve of a nationwide declaration of the legality of same-sex marriages.
This scenario played out before when the first mixed-race couple fought the unconstitutional laws forbidding them to live as husband and wife.
In Loving v. Virginia, the entire evolution from the complete ban of mixed-raced couples to nationwide laws allowing it was a sum total of 43 years from enactment of the law banning it in Virginia to the overturning of the Loving’s’ convictions for an “illegal” marriage by the Supreme Court in 1967.
The couple, Mildred Delores Jeter and Richard Perry Loving, were legally wed in Washington DC in 1958, but they made their home in the state of Virginia where their marriage was not recognized.
Loving and her white husband were arrested in 1959, and subsequently pled guilty to a violation of Section 20-58 of the Virginia Code. The code, enacted under the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, prohibited mixed-race couples from marrying legally in another state and returning to Virginia. They were also charged and pled guilty under Section 20-59, which made their crime of getting legally married in another state a felony. They were sentenced to one year in prison, but in a stroke of passion, the judge suspended the sentence for 25 years if the Lovings agreed to leave the state of Virginia.
The couple moved to the District of Columbia. In 1964, wishing to visit their families, Mildred Loving wrote a letter to Robert Kennedy, who referred her to the Amercian Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Thus began the beginning of the end of anti-miscegenation laws, although some remained on the books until as recently as 2000.
As state bans against same-sex marriages continue to topple like so many dominoes in a row, one must wonder if there will be those few states that refuse to afford equal rights to all citizens. In the case of mixed-race marriages, the last state standing was Alabama. Although currently under a temporary stay, Alabama’s ban against gay marriage was declared unconstitutional last week.
The times they are a-changin’
All photos from Facebook – Cherrie Coutts Photography
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