Practice limited to male clientele THERAPEUTIC MASSAGE William Coil, NCMT % 802-658-2390 800-830-5025 ¢.¢;¢.¢.¢.¢.¢. BOB GREEN, LCMHC LICENSED CLINICAL MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELOR SOUTH BURLINGTON, VERMONT (802) 658-2390 (800) 830-5025 INDIVIDUALS 8C COUPLES MAGELLAN, VHAP, MEDICAID & MANY OTHER INSURANCE PROGRAMS ACCEPTED WATER CARE SYSTEM A Bromine-Free. chlorine-Free. care-Free. www. goiopoolsiuff. com Con/zcy Country of FROM THE CONNECfrieUT RIVER TO THE _ CANADIAN BORDER REAL ESTATE AND INSURANCE . 179 Main sneer =s= Derbyjvet-mom: 05829 phone (802) 766-2401 * 800-243-52401 . fax 766.4731 =1: e.mai1.rnick@reaIestatevermorit.com Log onto , wwwrea es :1 evermon .com North Professionals jacleie Marina REALTOR 802-655-3377 x23 800-639-4520 x23 e-mail [c:ckie@together.net website: www.jockiemc1rino.com ”Out” and Servin our Community since 989 arts BY Sco1'r SHERMAN gene. Show me real people in any circumstance, and I’m glued to the tube. Nothing would lsuspect I have the reality TV - make me happier than to watch The Bachelor vs the American Idol facing Fear Factor on the Survivor Island. I’d much rather live in _The Real World than my own. K So, I ’m the natural audience for Gay Weddings, the eight-part “docu—series” just released by Ventura ' Entertainment. Gay Weddings originally aired in eight half- hour segments on Bravo. All eight segments are collected here, along with an additional hour of “where are they now” updates, and a few other inter- . views and plugs for non-profit I groups (GLAAD, HRC, and PowerUP). To be fair, Gay Weddings is not exactly “reality TV,” in which, traditionally, real people are put in manufactured situations. In Gay Weddings, the subjects choose their own des- tinies, and the cameras simply follow them around. The series follows four couples as they plan and enjoy their same—sex nuptials. Scott and Harley are the couple who spend so much time bickering that you wonder if they’ll ever make it to the altar. Scott is small and blonde, a healthy eater and a religious Catholic. Harley is brunette, Jewish and a fast-food-eating smoker. They seem to quarrel about everything. At times, it seems that Harley’s mother is more into their wedding than they are. She, a brassy, over- tanned bottle blonde, is one of the guiltiest pleasures of the show. When she tells us that Scott is “every mother’s dream, he’s going to make my son so happy!” you’ll want to hoot with Joy. Lupe and Sonja are described by the DVD’s distrib- utor as “attractive, Rubenesque Four Weddings 4DurtNay Documenting Pre-CU Rites in a Homoptgobic World women, playful and romantic.” It’s a pretty fair description, and of. all the couples, I found them the most charming and sincere. Sonja, an African-American mother of an 18-year-old son, is especially winning and sensible. Some of the show’s most painful moments come when this emi- nently likable couple of color is rejected by wedding venues that are uninterested in hosting a les- bian affair. Also painful is the road traveled by.Dale and Eve, a les- bian couple who, despite some gay family members, have to deal with familiar familial dis- cord. In one excruciating scene, Eve is on the phone with her parents and asks, “You guys are definitely going to come right?” “Well,” her mother weasels, “you know, we’re here and you’re there,” as if the distance were impassible without sled dogs and a dirigible. Later, Eve cries to her partner when she realizes that “I went to my brother’s and sister’s weddings, but they won’t come to mine.” Last are Dan and Greg, a well-to-do couple living in what looks like a million-dollar home. Maybe it?s class envy, but I found their story the least sym- pathetic. They’re planning an exciting, “larger than life” cere- mony, complete with bagpipes, Broadway singers, and catering by a fabulous celebrity chef for 250 of their closest friends. Ugh. Even Trista and Ryan weren’t that bad. _ Is this DVD for you? Well, it might be, if you have the reality gene. These couplesare taking a fascinating journey at an interesting point in time: when gay marriage seemed pos- sible, but before civil unions in Vermont, or later developments in San Francisco and Massachusetts. They are pio- neers in the landscape of love, .figuring out how to make a pub- lic commitment before the pub- lie was even thinking of how they’d respond. Still, there’s no denying that watching couples, even same sex couples, develop guest lists, find sites, pick out wedding outfits and plan the catering might be the definition of tedi- um for some people. And, trust me, there’s a lot of attention to detail in Gay Weddings. You’ll need to like that kind of stuff. You’ll also need a lot of time. As I write this, I am only a third of a way through the more than five hours of materials on the two DVD set. But, I can’t wait to see the rest. I can’t help it — it’s in my genes.V Scott Sherman watches reality TV at home in Richmond while his husband is on the road.