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Stories: Suzanne Westenhoefer and Jennifer Houston

Love
Stories: Suzanne Westenhoefer and Jennifer Houston

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Fans knew comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer was really in love when her "girlfriend Jenn" started turning up in her onstage monologues. Westenhoefer met marketing pro Jennifer Houston four years ago, when both of them were working on a women's cruise.

Married: September 6, 2008 Together: 4 years

Fans knew comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer was really in love when her "girlfriend Jenn" started turning up in her onstage monologues. Westenhoefer met marketing pro Jennifer Houston four years ago, when both of them were working on a women's cruise. "I noticed her swagger," Westenhoefer says. "It's a limp," Houston counters. "Swagger," Westenhoefer repeats. "Limp," Houston says. Sitting side by side in the immaculate living room of their craftsman home, these two banter in perfect sync. But on the subject of marriage, they were out of step until this summer.

Westenhoefer, who's 47, chalks it up to the nine-year difference in their ages. "I came out in '81," the comic says. "That was [the decade of] AIDS, ACT UP, fight back, Queer Nation. By the time Jenn [who's now 38] came out in '92, k.d. lang was on the cover of Vanity Fair."

As for marriage, "Jenn bugged me about it from the moment we got together," says Westenhoefer, with a show of annoyance. "She's very romantic, and I'm old-school, like, 'Hey, this is why I'm queer -- no kids, no weddings, not all these heterosexual trappings.' "

Still, Westenhoefer surprised her romantic by arranging a commitment ceremony two years ago at home in front of family and friends. "I was like, OK, we're done with that," Westenhoefer says. "Then they legalized marriage, and I went, 'Oh, no.' " Sure enough, Houston popped the question, complete with a Tiffany solitaire ring.

They recount the events of their September 6 wedding day blow-by-blow, including a distraught stranger at the door, "giant athlete girls" arriving in workout clothes, the police, a fire truck, and a final frenzied dash to the chapel.

As they exchanged vows this time, Westenhoefer, at last, saw the light. "I'm telling you, when the woman said, 'By the power vested in me by the state of California,' it was like, Oh, yeah!" she says. "I think maybe I was settling. Making an excuse, like, 'Oh, I'm above marriage,' is easy to say if you can't have it. It's like saying, 'I don't want to live in that beautiful palace that sits up on top of the hill. Wouldn't it be awful to take care of that?' "

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