Gayle Talks Gay

You talked on the show about being a little nervous about attending your first gay wedding [the September 2008 wedding between producer Scott Sanders and author Brad Lamm]. What about it made you nervous?
What’s interesting is that when Scott asked me to do a reading at his wedding, I was like, Oh my God! My first gay wedding. What should I do? What should I wear? And you know what I found out, Jon? It’s like any other wedding of people in love. You know? It’s not any different. Nothing different happens. It’s a celebration of two people in love.

And that wedding was in California?
Yeah, it was in Los Angeles at the Hotel Bel-Air. I was so excited.

But that was before Proposition 8.
Oh, yeah. It was before Prop. 8. It was when marriage was legal in California for a hot second.

What was your response to Prop. 8’s passage?
Well, I was very surprised that it happened in California. You know, because I’m thinking that California’s certainly more progressive than a lot of states. Then when Iowa [passed marriage equality], I thought, Come on, guys. If they can do it in Iowa… It was sort of one of those times where you go, What’s wrong with the picture? So I think, let Iowa lead the way, as they did with the presidential election.

Prop. 8 is especially troubling when I think of how prominent the gay community is in California — the openly gay community. They’re really individuals who make you say, “I want to be like them.” I was really, really surprised and very disappointed. That threw me — the vote and that people were so vitriolic about it.

Have you been to any other same-sex weddings?
No, no one has invited me!