Love and Marriage

I went to a charity event last night. It was fashion show held at Nottingham’s Escucha bar and featured the burlesque collection of designer Susi Henson from Eternal Spirits. It was a fabulous evening – the massing throngs in the audience were dressed almost as fashionably as the models on the catwalk, and there was a VIP area where the assembled guests there rattled their jewellery along with their credit cards. We were treated to a glittering array of gorgeous models parading in a range of stunning outfits, interspersed with various cabaret acts for our amusement. There was a Dean Martin impersonator, a couple of other singers and a music-hall style burlesque stripper (see photo). It was a charming evening all round – it began with dinner at Ranj’s house and then we walked up to the bar where we joined darling Sarah D from Unleashed together with her gorgeous boyfriend, plus many others. It ended madly, as usual, in Muse Bar.

I’m going to be out of town for a few days from tomorrow, and I won’t have any access to Tinterweb at all. I’m going to a music festival in a farmer’s field and I shall be camping (no jokes, please). I’ve never actually been proper camping before and I’m very excited about it. The reason for attending the festival in the first place is to celebrate the marriage of some good friends of mine. They are holding a Druid ceremony amidst the festival on Saturday, which of course is the Summer Solstice. The dress code for the ceremony is described on the invitation as ‘fancy dress’, so I plan to wear a basque (inspired by last night’s fashion show) and my elephant trousers.

My friends getting married are heterosexuals, but there has been a lot of talk in the press recently about the rights and wrongs of gay marriage. On this subject, I would say this: According to those who would claim that the bible prescribes on this matter, marriage exists for two main reasons – to provide a stable and loving relationship in which two people can support each other throughout life; and to create an environment for the procreation of children. Okay, nobody would deny gay people the opportunity to enjoy the first of these – everyone is entitled to find a partner with whom they can share the joys and tragedies of life, whether that’s with a person of the opposite or of the same sex. So that just leaves the thorny issue of procreation. Well, whereas it is true that homosexual couples face biological challenges to reproduction, so it is with many other relationships. What about couples who are incapable of having children? What about couples who marry when they are already too old to have children? What about those couples who don’t actually want to have children? Are we to deny these people the opportunity to marry too? Of course not.

Leave people alone to do what they want with their lives, that’s what I say. If two people are lucky enough to find a partner whom they can love and cherish for the rest of their lives, then good luck to them, whatever the mix (or not) of their gender.