Kevin Smith Officiates Gay Wedding

Last night's 'Nightline' on ABC had a piece about getting married by a celebrity.  I guess it's the new "in" thing to do if you're getting married in California.  Tori Spelling has been doing it on her reality show for a couple of years, now.  And, in February, you can add writer/director/actor Kevin Smith into the mix.

In February, Smith, an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church, an online church with over 20 million members, married Scott Loudon and Michael Wojtowicz.  Yes, his first official marriage was of a gay couple.  As long time Los Angeles Kings season ticket holders, Loudon and Wojtowicz wanted a hockey themed wedding.  Being the hockey fanatic that he is, Smith couldn't refuse.

Dressed as a referee, he conducted the ceremony as the couple were dressed as players, complete with jerseys and fake bruises.  The 50 or so in attendance at Smiths theater in L.A. all wore jerseys as well, while the proceedings were broadcast online as part of a regularly scheduled podcast.

The invites were even made to look like tickets to a game:

The wedding date was 02/12/2011 - Sec 2011, Row 2, Seat 12

I don't know about you, but speaking for myself, I would much rather be married by Silent Bob than Donna from 'Beverly Hills, 90210'.  As Smith said in the piece last night,

"If you're getting married here, you're really interesting.... If you're getting married in hockey jerseys, and making me wear a referee jersey, and you're gay, and you're here, and you're huge hockey fans, we're in for a great show."

Take a look at the video.  I found it really touching.  It's nice to see Smith's reaction to the whole thing.  It's as if he's just hanging out with a couple of his drinking buddies.  It's no big deal to him.

I have read a couple of comments on the gay websites regarding this story, and I was surprised to see how much of a negative reaction it's getting.  One comment in particular struck me as peculiar.  It went on to say, "Shame on Kevin Smith.  Publicity stunts like this make our fight towards marriage equality look insincere.  Gay marriage is not a joke."

Really?  Are we going to bring the "sanctity of marriage" bullshit argument into this story, now?  News flash:  There is no sanctity in marriage, anymore.  There hasn't been for decades.  When Larry King can be on his 8th (or is it 9th) wife.  Or when you can get married by Elvis at a drive thru window in Las Vegas.  Or when one of the most popular shows on cable is about a man and his four wives, there is no sanctity in marriage.

If straight couples can have Star Wars themed weddings or Lord of the Rings themed weddings, why can't a gay couple have a hockey themed wedding?  What's the harm?  In my mind that IS marriage equality.

Kevin Smith, believe it or not, has been a long time advocate for the LGBT community.  In fact, when no one else would fund or produce a little documentary called 'Small Town Gay Bar', Smith personally funded the project so that it would be completed.  He also distributed it through his production company, View Askew, and secured a spot for it to be shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006.  It is an amazing film that documents the lives of gay and lesbian residents in rural areas in the South, and the steps they have taken to try to form a resemblance of a community.  Over the last three decades, some have had the courage to open gay bars in their local towns, only to be threatened, beaten, and run out by local politicians and church leaders.

On a personal note:  My wife and I were initially planning on having a Beatles themed wedding in Las Vegas.  Due to unforeseen circumstances (our almost 3 year old daughter on the way), we decided to change our wedding plans.  A close friend of ours became ordained as a minister online through the Universal Life Church.  We were married in our kitchen, with only a couple of our closest friends in attendance.  

If I had to do our wedding day all over again, I would still be standing in that little kitchen with my beautiful fiancée, and a champagne flute filled with sparkling grape juice.  I wouldn't change a thing.  It's 2011.  Weddings aren't about pomp and circumstance, or wedding dresses and "something borrowed/something blue" anymore.  Tradition is out the window.  Today, it's simply about two people coming together to make a commitment to love each other for the rest of their lives.  End of story.

Congratulations, Scott and Michael.  May the two of you have a happy and fruitful life together.  Go Kings!! 

Kevin Smith - A Body Positive Role Model For Men

It's no secret that women aren't the only ones that feel self-conscious about themselves at times.  Men are just as insecure as our female counterparts, whether we would like to admit it or not.  We worry about going bald.  We think about our skin, and most of all, we worry about our weight.  For quite some time now, women have had a number of body positive advocates on their side, with the Operation Beautiful project, websites like The Body Positive, and numerous amateur blogs and forums.

 Men...seems like we're on our own.  Today, we're inundated with ads for weight loss pills, Bowflex, and P90X.  The fat guys in the movies are relegated to either the slapstick jackasses or the comedic sidekick that never gets the girl.  And Seth Rogan doesn't count.  He's not fat anymore.  Besides, he's sort of a douche.

Our only hope is a quiet, bearded man standing in front of a convenience store in New Jersey.  This guy:

This is Kevin Smith, director of such classics as 'Clerks', 'Mallrats', 'Chasing Amy', and my personal favorite, 'Dogma'.  This picture of him was taken with his cellphone on 02/13/2010, while he was being kicked off of a Southwest Airlines flight for being "too fat".  He was able to fit between the armrests and buckle his seat belt, but the flight crew determined that he posed a "safety risk" due to his size.  At the time, he weighed over 300 pounds.  Needless to say, he was not happy that afternoon.  He was continuously tweeting as the ordeal was developing.  Here are a couple of those tweets:

The @SouthwestAir Diet.   How it works: you’re publicly shamed into a slimmer figure. Crying the weight right off has never been easier!

Hey @SouthwestAir! I’ve landed in Burbank.  Don’t worry:  wall of the plane was opened & I was airlifted out while Richard Simmons supervised.

Needless to say, it was a humiliating ordeal.  Newspapers, websites, and magazines around the world carried the story showing his picture with the word "fat" sprawled across the title.  The Philadelphia Inquirer even went so far as to call him a "blimp".  Since then, Smith has lost 65 pounds.  He refuses to disclose how much he weighs now, or how he lost the weight.  He spoke with Joy Behar on Wednesday night, telling her that in 2008, "I broke a toilet.  That's how heavy I am."  He also said,

"I feel mixed feelings about losing the weight.  I sympathize far more with heavier people than I ever will with thin. I'll never be thin. Let's be honest, I've lost 65 pounds, but nobody's going, 'I wanna sleep with you!' They're just like, 'Keep going, you look better.'"

One thing that really makes Smith stand out was his final statement of the interview, "Sometimes a fat dude has a lot to offer, if [you] can just get past the blubber."  If more women realized that...hell, if Hollywood realized that, I think it would make for a lot of happier men in the world.  And a lot of happier women.  Take a look at the interview: