The cruise organizers - Rosie's wife, Kelli, and Kelli's business partner, Gregg Kaminsky - chose Halifax because same-sex marriage is legal here and because the city is known as gay-friendly.
Ten couples from the ship will get married at Pier 21 today, starting at 8:30 a.m.
"We heard that the trip was coming, and one of our members said we should offer to facilitate some marriages while they're here," said Bob Fougere, a co-ordinator with the Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project.
Mr. Fougere wouldn't say how much, but the Rainbow Project did charge the couples a fee, which includes the marriage licence and registration, flowers, photos, someone to officiate and a venue.
....
Mr. Fougere couldn't say if Rosie would attend the weddings, and cruise organizers aboard ship couldn't be reached Monday.
Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly will host a private reception for Rosie at the Halifax Citadel just before noon.
Rumours she'll fire the noon gun from the Citadel couldn't be verified.
Ugh.
I never thought of Halifax as being particularly "gay-friendly", but Halifax has been changing over the years as come-from-aways, mostly from Upper Canada, have flooded the universities and other fine Halifax establishments and stayed. The city's morphing into an NDP stronghold demonstrates just how far removed it has become from the rest of Nova Scotia.
It is strangely appropriate, however, to have Rosie and company fire the noon gun on the Citadel. It would be even more appropriate if they fired it at midnight, since Citadel Hill has been the centre of homosexual prostitution in Halifax since forever.
It is disquieting, however, to hold such an event at Pier 21. Pier 21 is Canada's own Ellis Island, the gateway through with hundreds of thousands of new Canadians entered. It has special meaning to Halifax's and Canada's history that should not
be cheapened with this vulgar, Vegas wedding-chapel style display.
In any event, this article is laden with tasteless joke material. Please feel free to litter my comment box with them.
Source: Halifax Chronicle-Herald
1 comment:
Kinda funny.
The other day the CBC was interviewing one of the tour coordinators and whenever he was asked about this cruise in particular all he would say was that it was a "family tour". He was pressed four to five times to accurately describe who was on the cruise and why, but never once mentioned that it was a GLBT cruise, complete with gay weddings and the like.
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