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Straight Couples "Unmarry" in NYC


Reverend Billyx390 (Screen grab) | Advocate.com

Dressed in his trademark televangelist drag and exhorting the crowd to a “same-sex elujah,” New York activist Reverend Billy Talen led straight couples in a mass “unwedding” on Valentine's Day in solidarity with gay couples denied marriage rights.

The Village Voice offers a detailed report of the scene with nearly 50 couples in Central Park on Sunday.

“The happy twosomes — some married, some in long-term relationships — arranged themselves before a floral trellis,” according to the Runnin' Scared blog from the Voice. “The theatrical activist and former mayoral candidate, who typically preaches an anti-consumerist gospel, then stepped forward to take a rather slushy pulpit, officiating the Valentine's Day mass ‘unwedding.’”

The Reverend Billy, as he is known around the city, leads a band of activists called the Church of Life After Shopping, best recognized for its anticonsumerist message.

This year, the group planned its action in response to recent marriage equality defeats in the New York and New Jersey state senates, and the impending court decision on Prop. 8 in California.

Watch the videos below.

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Reader Comments
  • Name: steve in MD
    Date posted: 2/17/2010 4:14:17 AM
    Hometown: Baltimore

    Comment:

    I wear a ring with the word EQUALITY on it.. Bought it from some group that started in Berkley. The basic Idea is that "we won't get married until gays can get married." And my son is going to wear it, while I applaud his living in sin with his GF. And I'm trying to talk my wife into a divorce. I'm not going to leave the woman I love, the real reason is that if one of us (were 69, 70) ends up in a nursing home, it will banrkrupt the other, and leave the other dependent on the generosity of the kids. And this is a great Idea. I can spin this to the public in a newspaper article in our local paper - we won't be married until gay people can be married. Stuff the anti-chirst pigs shit back down their throat, and help encourage the youth to stay unmarried as well. Helping expose the sick shit that exists in this country.

  • Name: john in SF
    Date posted: 2/16/2010 9:48:24 AM
    Hometown: San Francisco

    Comment:

    Come on Mike, anywhere is more liberal than Cin. That city is really really bad in terms of tolerance. It has to be #3 or 4 in terms of most homophobic in the country. Probably behind Tulsa and such. People always think CA and they think SF and LA, well, go to BAkersfield or Modesto and you will see why prop 8 passed. WHat you don't realize is that you are harming the SF and LA portion, not the Bakersfield part

  • Name: Brennan
    Date posted: 2/15/2010 3:17:43 PM
    Hometown: NYC

    Comment:

    We cannot and will not be running in fear of the 'right' (or, really, the 'wrong'). This theatrical spectacle event is one of many possible answers or addresses. The conservatives will think what they will...we are aiming for those on the fence while telling the rest that we are here. Prop 8 passed fairly narrowly. Change does not happen by waiting. We need to speak up about this and all civil rights, always, or forever...hold...you know.

  • Name: S
    Date posted: 2/15/2010 2:10:07 PM
    Hometown: Orlando

    Comment:

    I am not concerned about how the right perceives this. Nor do I think they will be quacking in their boots. The spin-doctors will always try to spin anything. The most important thing here is the intention. It is a symbolic gesture that was defined by the participants. Symbols have the power to mobilize nations. No one, no matter how they try to spin it, can take away from that symbolism. Now all we need to do is multiply these awareness raising symbolic acts exponentially.

  • Name: mike
    Date posted: 2/15/2010 1:20:01 PM
    Hometown: cincinnati

    Comment:

    I always thought of NYC as a capital of the arts and a free thinking society. I have changed my thoughts about NY since gay marriage didn't become a reality. It is no better than any other place. California was a huge disappointment. Maine was even a shocker. I am already in a homophobic area so I won't be spending my money to visit any other one.

  • Name: Electronicoffee
    Date posted: 2/15/2010 1:03:48 PM
    Hometown: Las Vegas, NV

    Comment:

    So what? They already fucked us over with Prop 8. It's time to stop being nice, and start being real. IF they WANT us to be a threat to straight marriage, we WILL be. This is just the beginning and until we get treated the same even our straight allies will stand up and do the right thing until we all can. Straight people already destroyed 'straight marriage' but more than anything, I hope this freaks out and scares some conservative assholes. Hell, I'm sure if we raised enough money we could bribe people to cluster once a month for this kind of awesome demonstration. Fuck yeah! :D Until we get the equal treatment we deserve, we will continue. PS: To all those people who threw a stone or painted a mormon church because of the prop 8 trial - you're my personal hero. Fuck what the PC gays say. Remember ACT UP ? Nothing gets done if you let the PC Fags run the show.

  • Name: B
    Date posted: 2/15/2010 12:46:45 PM
    Hometown: Kansas City

    Comment:

    This is why the right thinks we are "a threat to marriage." I am all for allies and solidarity, but when straights symbolically dissolve their marriages because of the GLBT population, that's fodder for the right.



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