Naturally I'd like to start out this piece by wishing both Kate & William the most heartfelt congratulations on their nuptials and best wishes for much continued happiness and precious memories. Of course, they most definitely are not among my readership audience but when any two people meet and fall in love and decide to build a life together, I think that regardless of who those two people are, it's something to be celebrated, something to be very happy about. Though I'm certain alotta folks are extremely fed-up with the continous re-broadcasting of the wedding ceremony, clips of all the funky do-dad hats everyone was wearing and the constant comparisons between this-n-that Royal wedding, I gotta admit, I'm still enjoying some bits-n-pieces of it all due to the fact that I missed alotta the hub-bub because I was at work when it all happened.
I'm sure everyone has their take on the wedding proceedings, the media blitz that has been going on about it for the last coupla months or so and which still continues to this very moment, and that's perfectly fine, everyone is entitled to their own perceptions and opinions regarding the Royal wedding. However, in the last 48 hours, I stumbled upon a comment that simply just didnt sit well with me. Actually, I feel kinda embarassed about it because it was made by a fellow Hiv'er and even though we are no different from anyone else there who registers an opinion about any given subject, it shocked the living hell outta me that there still are Hiv'ers out there who literally blame everything in the entire known universe for their circumstances; in other words, they blame everyone but themselves for being Hiv+.
The comment that was made implied that Kate Middleton had a helluva lotta nerve wearing such an expensive wedding dress when millions of people are dying from AIDS. The first thing that flew outta my mouth was "What the fuck!?!?! What the hell does her wedding dress have to do with the plight of those of us with Hiv/AIDS!?!?!" I mean, my God, the two have no friggin correlation whatsoever! I gotta ask, where do people come up with this kinda bullshit? I dont care what way you look at it, there's something I've realized about myself after the age of 40 - my tolerance for ignorance in the human race has greatly lessened as I've gotten older and my patience in dealing with people who exhibit such behavior is growing closer and closer to zilch.
I wanna take a few minutes here to get some things straightened out, okay? 1st and foremost, who's special day was that? Kate & Williams, correct? I gotta little newsflash for everyone out there - when a woman decides to get married she is entitled to wear whatever friggin wedding dress she damn well pleases! I dont care if it costs $10 or $100 or $100 million dollars or even $100 trillion dollars, or whether she is marrying into a Royal monarchy or not, if that's the dress she wanted to wear, then more power to her. Granted, the concept of all people, both women and men alike, donating all the money that would go towards their nice wedding threads towards various medical charities is a very generous and unselfish concept unto itself, but in action? Sorry, but that's just not realistic.
2nd of all, yes, everyone on the entire planet can praise or pooh-pooh the Royal wedding all they damn well please, but here's a thought - it is equally true that everyone on this planet, even us members of the GLBTQ communities, are entitled to have our wedding ceremonies any way we damn well please too; so, bascially, what the hell right do any of us have to dictate to others on how their wedding ceremonies should be? I just dont get it. Is there something I'm missing here?
Look, although Kate & William's wedding does not have any direct personal bearing on our lives here in the United States, you gotta admit, with the exception of the recent wonderful news regarding Osama bin Laden's death, things have been pretty shitty all over the entire world the last few years, so if their wedding provided some degree of harmless escapism or perhaps even joy to others, what the hell is so wrong with that? Yeah, sure, it would be great if we all could be rich-n-famous like the Royals and have such extravagant, fancy-schmancy weddings but since that's not the case, why does anyone feel the need to condemn and mock them because of that? None of us has the right to pass judgement on each other, especially us GLBTQ folks, because when any of us behaves that way we're making ourselves out to be hypocrites. After all, we dont want anyone giving us shit about our wedding days yet it's okay for us to do that to others? I dont think so. I dunno about the rest of you but this homey simply doesnt play that way.
Now I'm more than certain that there are alotta folks over in Great Britain, Canada and any other coutries that have direct close ties to the British monarchy who are pissin-n-moanin left-n-right about the Royal wedding, how exorbitant this-n-that aspect of it was and everything else imaginable regarding those proceedings which took place this past Friday morning over at Westminster Abbey, and like I said, everyone has the right to feel the way they do about it. However, to villianize a young lady just because she wore the wedding dress she wanted to? Or even moreso, expect that she should dress in a burlap sack because folks like me are battling a serious chronic illness, one of which she has no direct involvement in whatsoever? Anybody who thinks in either of those contexts, needs to get a hold of themselves and join the rest of us at the table of reality.
Though I thought the entire Royal wedding proceedings, or at least what I've seen of them so far, were extremely beautiful and awe-inspiring (that Westminster Abbey place is awfully impressive, isnt it?) you know what impressed me the most? That one fancy dining room at Buckingham Palace, you know, the one with the red-velvet dining room chairs and all? Didja y'all see those fancy ceiling tiles in that room, most notably the ones made outta actual Wedgewood China? Oh mannnnn, when I saw those babies I instantly envisioned myself walking into that room, dropping to my knees and flicking on "So Emotional" by Whitney Houston in the background!! My mouth just dropped when I saw clips of that ceiling! Wow, major-major wow! I tell ya, when ya grow up poor most of your life like I did, shuffling from military base to military base, seeing something classy and ritzy like that, well, that's the stuff that some dreams are made of. I wish Kate & William all the happiness in the world and I think it's so neat that their new titles, Duke & Duchess of Cambridge, and one of my favorite neighborhoods/boroughs of Boston share the same exact name - Cambridge. Thank you for reading.
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