For some odd reason, the government recognizes my husband as able to legally bind others together, with all the rights and benefits that entails, yet he doesn't have the capacity to decide for himself who he should marry or be with. And in the few places we are viewed as married after our California nuptials, we still are cut off from the federal benefits of civil marriage. In our own home state, we are legal strangers, yet he can perform other's weddings.

What's wrong with this picture?

I personally think that you should be able to have whoever you choose perform your ceremony- whether it be religious figure, friends, family, or the cruise ship captain- just as I think you should be able to marry whom you choose. Others keep harping about the "sanctity" of marriage, yet for twenty bucks online you can get "ordained" and bestow the "sacred sacrament" of marriage on others.

It all just seems hypocritical and backwards.

It has nothing to do with actually performing the ceremonies. He happily married my sister and her husband and is now doing the same for our friends, but the obvious inequality of it all is staggering.

It seems the government and "traditional marriage" advocates (ugh) want to have their wedding cake and eat it too. Marriage is so holy and historic that you can do it in a drive-thru in Vegas or perform one after a quick online certificate, yet LGBT folks can't even get in on the party.

So we'll be happily celebrating our friends' wedding. I'm sure I'll cry, eat too much cake, and dance the macarena with the best of them. I'll just be doing it with someone the government doesn't recognize as my husband- the very man who has signed the paper allowing others to legally get married.

Pass the champagne...