will soon recognize gay marriage. If it happens, Tom thinks, Honolulu may well become a kind of Reno for gays--a city of all—night altars and neon chapels. And if that happens——if thousands of gay men and women flock to Hawaii and get married——other states may well be forced to recognize the marriages, na- tionwide recognition being the general rule with regard to straight marriages, regardless of where the license was ob- tained. The phone rang. “Can that be Walter?"“ Tom said. He let the machine pick up, and soon the voice of Walter said, “The chart’s not here. Call before I start turning over the desks.” “I’ll show you what really got me thinking about mar- riage,” Tom said, and stood up. He took us to the bedroom, and there we saw an elegant photograph of Tom and Walter locked in a mild embrace. “Several months ago, Annie Leibovitz, as a present for our fifth anniversary, shot me and Walter,” Tom said. “The picture got me thinking about appearances--the importance of declaring our commit- ment before people we love.” Then he remarked that, whereas the subtext of so many straight weddings is about ex- panding possibility, for gay men with AIDS it has more to do with closure. PO Box 220 Hyde Park. Vermont 05655-0220 (802) 888-4100 Office (802)888-2977 Home VALERIE WHITE Humanist Minister American Humanist Association Namings - Weddings - Union Ceremonies - Memorial Services “The relationship has that precious quality of something that's going away,” he said. We left not long afterward, with the seating chart sill missing. When we next spoke with Tom and Walter, a couple of days before the wed- ding, Walter had come down with a tra- ditional case of the screaming meemies. He had found the seating chart by then, but he had begun to wonder if some hid- den voice wasn’t saying, “Don’t com- mit.” “For lesbians and gay men, mar- riage is scary,” Tom told us. (Walter wasn’t talking.) “After all, gay rights is about challenging tradition, and what’s more traditional than a wedding?” The wedding was held on a rainy Sat- urday afternoon at Chanterelle, in Tri- beca. Walter’s jitters were gone. He wore a gray suit and a red tie. Tom, too, was dressind in gray. During the cock- tail hour, more than seventy people, in- cluding Walter’s brother and two sis- ters, Tom’s brother, and a New York Supreme Court justice, drank cham- pagne and filled the room with stories about Tom and Walter. The two men then appeared in a clearing between ta- bles. Facing each other, they exchanged vows (“I commit to you my life and my P.O. Box 247 April 1994 love for the rest of our days”), put on their gold rings, and were married. When Tom and Walter kissed, the crowd cheered and guests began toasting every- thing in sight: Tom toasted Walter’s family; Walter toasted Tom’s brother; Tom and Walter toasted Karen and Da- vid Waltuck, who own Chanterelle; Kar- en thanked them and ran from the room teary-eyed. Then, after rapping on a glass (half empty, half full), which quieted the room, Tom’s brother John said, “Tom and Walter have done something that gay people have dreamed of for thousands of years. Let’s raise our glasses to Tom and Walter: May you continue your life to- gether in a more perfect union, in good health, and always with adventure and purpose and love.” V David W. Curtis ATTORNEY AT LAW HOFF, CURTIS, PACHT, CASSIDY & FRAME, P.C. 100 Main Street Burlington, VT 05402-0247 802-864-4531 Psychosynthesis (802) 254 -8032 MICHAEL GIGAN TE, PH.D. Counseling & Therapy 15 Myrtle St., Brattleboro, VT 05301 04/94 - Small Business B LAC KWOOD A A N D E'l M Bl k d I een . ac woo Pamela Kraynak ATTORNEYS AT LAW - Employment law 84 Pine Street - Education law p_O_ BOX 875 0 Wills, Relationship Contracts 0 Commercial & Residential Real Estate Burlington, VT 05402 (802)863-2517