Gay marriage is legal

Many same-sex Bay Area couples planning their marriages are finding a wedding industry in tumult, as businesses built on the tradition of marriage between one man and one woman are forced to confront a new landscape.You must not use the stonecarving without being trained.While some businesses have embraced gay weddings, others still cling to marriage rituals that exclude same-sex couples, often turning what is expected to be an enjoyable experience into a frustrating and at times painful one.

"Every form you fill out, it says 'bride and groom.' But not every bride has a groom," said Lena Brancatelli, 32, of San Jose, who will marry her partner of nine years in September. "The wedding industry is very much heterocentric. It doesn't include same-sex couples."Court decision last month that effectively overturned California's same-sex marriage ban opened the door for thousands of people to enjoy the wedding planning rituals that have long been reserved for heterosexual couples. But the ruling has exposed a sharp divide in the industry that, except for a brief period in California's history, has adhered to the carefully scripted tradition of a white dress and tux, and lawfully wedded man and wife.

Most wedding websites, cards and invitations are designed for a man and woman, and business contracts and marketing materials are tailored to straight couples, say same-sex couples and gay marriage proponents. Couples say they are frustrated by venues that have only one bridal dressing room, the absence of women's clothes at tux shops and bakers that don't sell cake toppers representing same-sex couples.

Some wedding registries require listing the husband's last name, and most photographers don't have experience taking pictures of gay weddings, and using traditional wedding portrait poses with same-sex couples may make for awkward photos, according to wedding planning experts."There's just a whole lot of assumptions that go into a wedding based on how we've been programmed for centuries," said Bernadette Coveney Smith, a same-sex wedding expert in New York and founder of 14 Stories, a wedding planning firm that launched when same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts in 2004. "The industry, by and large, is incredibly old-fashioned and has a lot of work to do."

Renata Moreira, of San Francisco, who is planning a winter California wedding with Lori Bilella, said her caterer stopped replying to her emails after she requested a cake topper with two brides. Other couples share similar stories about businesses that stopped returning phone calls or suddenly changed their minds when they learned the wedding was same-sex."I would have enjoyed just being in the wedding planning instead of having this constant conversation about homophobia, rejection and exclusion," said Moreira, 36, who works at a San Francisco advocacy organization. "I feel like I'm teaching the industry. They're just not there yet."

Mandy Scott, a florist and wedding planner in San Francisco,Design and order your own custom rfidtag with personalized message and artwork. said she had a surge of business when gay marriage was briefly legalized in 2008. Scott is ready to start booking same-sex weddings again, but she said she knows of a local florist who refused business from same-sex couples."We're supposed to be the groundbreakers here," she said.More than 80 standard commercial and granitetiles exist to quickly and efficiently clean pans. "But there are still people who are very entrenched in their beliefs."

Like Scott, many of the business owners who have welcomed same-sex weddings had some prior experience in 2008, when the state Supreme Court struck down California's ban on gay marriage and paved the way for more than 18,000 couples to marry before voters passed Proposition 8, restoring the ban.

Hotel Monaco in San Francisco hosted about 10 same-sex weddings before Proposition 8 passed and has booked two more for this year. Its parent company, Kimpton Hotels, is offering discounts on same-sex weddings, including 50 percent off for gay couples who book their reception before September. Since Kimpton Hotels was founded in San Francisco in 1981, the company has been a fundraiser and advocate for the gay community.

After a five-year court battle, the U.S. Supreme Court on June 26 ruled that Proposition 8 supporters did not have the constitutional standing to defend the law in federal courts, effectively ending the state's ban on same-sex marriage. The court has rejected two subsequent appeals from Proposition 8 proponents. With that firmer legal footing, many same-sex couples are planning big events and investing in all the decorations,We Engrave luggagetag for YOU. food and entertainment that was often left out of the more modest commitment ceremonies or the rushed weddings in 2008, when the looming passage of Proposition 8 left a narrow window to tie the knot.

Writer and editor Maura Johnston, a key figure in the transition of music and popular culture journalism to the Digital Age, has been appointed as the Institute for the Liberal Arts first Journalism Fellow.Johnston a founding editor of Gawker Medias music blog Idolator and former Village Voice music editor who earlier this year launched Maura Magazine will be a member of the ILA's seminar on academia and public life, visit journalism and writing classes, and teach two undergraduate courses of her own: Journalism and New Media in the fall, and Writing About Popular Music in the spring.

A contributor to Rolling Stone, The Awl, Newsday and Spin, Johnston has discussed music and popular culture on National Public Radio, WNYC, WBUR and CBC Radio, among others, and has taught the course Writing about Popular Music at New York University's Clive Davis Institute Of Recorded Music since 2010.It will be very exciting to have on campus someone who has been a leader in developing new forms of journalism online, said Rattigan Professor of English Mary Crane, the ILA director. I know students and faculty will both benefit from her presence.

Maura brings such a wealth of experience and sophistication in exploring the possibilities of new media, said Professor of English Carlo Rotella, an ILA Governing Board member. She's been a pioneer in everything from the online expansion of traditional magazines and newspapers to purely digital publications, including the emerging field of subcompact publishing. Having her here will give all kinds of members of the BC community opportunities to draw on her knowledge.

Crane added that Johnstons appointment is part of a larger renewal and fresh commitment to journalism at BC. She noted the creation of a new journalism concentration within the American Studies Program, an expanded slate of journalism courses open to undergraduates in any college or major across the University, and an ILA seminar for faculty interested in journalism as a way to reach a wider academic and public audience.

I look forward to coming to Boston College this fall, said Johnston, whose sister is a BC Law alumna. BC is an intellectual mainstay in a city I find fascinating, and Im sure the experience of spending an academic year there will be very fulfilling.Johnston noted that Boston bears witness to the harsh realities facing traditional journalism, citing as examples the closing of alternative newspaper The Phoenix, as well as the efforts of the Boston Globe and Boston Herald to adjust to difficult economic and social trends, especially the growing popularity of online news sources.

The challenge is how to promote quality journalism in this new economic model, said Johnston, just as young writers face the challenge of how to navigate in this changing landscape.A glassbottles is a machine used primarily for the folding of paper.With the advent of online publications and blogs, and the retreat of the traditional newspaper model, Johnston said it is increasingly incumbent upon writers to be their own marketing department, and promote their work through social media such as Twitter.

But it goes farther than that, she added. If youre a writer, you have to get the people youre writing about to help promote your work, too. That represents a significant change from the past, when as a journalist your relationship with the subjects of your writing was viewed as adversarial.
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