Petrelis Files

CA Lesbians Marry the Moon,
the Ocean & Appalachian Mountains

If you're of a certain age, you remember how humorous it seemed when gays and lesbians in the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s went to marriage bureaus on Valentine's Day to demand marriage licenses and were turned away. Very few took the activists seriously, and look at where we are today with gay marriage.

Those times came up for discussion across the breakfast table on Saturday morning as the boyfriend and I read and talked about this article in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Elizabeth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle are a legally married same-sex couple, having tied the knot in Canada in 2007. But they don't consider lesbianism their primary sexual identity.

First and foremost, they're ecosexuals.

Taking tree-hugging to a whole new level, Stephens and Sprinkle have married the moon, the sky, the ocean, the Appalachian Mountains and the snow in a series of color-coordinated, nudist-friendly weddings that have attracted hundreds of people. And they've done it all in the name of ecosexuality. ...

Interesting that the Chronicle didn't clearly spell out that these lesbian have not legally married those entities, and I can easily see conservatives reading the article and thinking California lesbians can wed elements of nature.

And where might all this lead within the gay community? The article explains:

"We kind of felt like we had to be on our good behavior [when attending ecology rallies]," says Sprinkle, who hopes to see an "E" added to the LGBTQ alphabet jumble. "We're trying to find a place where queers, drag queens, differently gendered people and weird artists can be welcome." ...

Oh, dear Goddess, do we really need more letters and confusion mixed in with that alphabet jumble? No, in my humble opinion, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if we eventually saw the unwieldy acronym for the gay community expand to LGBTIQQAE - lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, questioning, allies, ecosexuals.

(Photo: Elizabeth Stephens, left, with her wife Annie Sprinkle enjoying each other's company in the great outdoors. Credit: Maddie McGarvey, SF Chronicle.)