My best friend Holly is a lesbian. She came out in a most interesting way…on the last day of senior year, she asked all of her close friends to meet her at the diner across the Long Island Expressway from our high school.
Since 2003, she has been dating (and since 2007, living with) her parter, Jennifer, whom she met while a student at NYU. They now live in a fabulous new oceanfront condo in the Rockaways in Queens, New York.
Recently, the have decided to get married…but since New York hasn’t legalize same-sex marriage (and thanks to Governor Paterson, the state recognizes those performed out of state), they were looking for places to do it; elope in Canada, have it at Holly’s aunt’s in Connecticut, etc. Jennifer wants to fly her family to wherever the wedding takes place. However, that may not be necessary after all!
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, Jennifer is from Iowa. She grew up on a farm outside of Muscatine, where she helped her daddy in the cornfields. Her family is super supportive of her, especially her father (who is a religious man might I add). Her dad is a member of PFLAG up in Iowa City. So it should not have come as a surprise to me when I heard this news this morning (it’s Sunday morning here in Rome);
I take it you heard about Iowa legalizing gay marriage. Jennifer is thrilled. She spoke to her dad and he offered to have our wedding on the farm she grew up on. She’s ecstatic at the idea. I’m happy she’s happy. Keep late summer open if you can. You promised when we set a date, you’d block it out to come home. Late August, Muscatine Iowa! Can you believe it? Never in a million years would I have guessed I’d be marrying a woman on a cornfield in the Midwest
What a story…here my best friends’s future wife, who grew up in the moderate midwest and come to New York looking for someplace that will accept her, will get to go home to marry the woman she loves on the farm where she grew up.
I’ve never been to Iowa, but I’m sure looking forward to it.
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