Nadal Withdraws From 2012 London Olympics!

Rafael Nadal won the gold medal in the men's singles
competition at the 2008 Beijing Olympics

The tennis world is still in shock today after 2008 Beijing Olympic Men's Singles champion Rafael Nadal announced that he was withdrawing from the men's singles competition at the 2012 London Olympics to be held on grass at the famed All-England Lawn Tennis Club (the site of the Wimbledon Championships).

Sports Illustrated reports:

The third-ranked Nadal said Thursday he wasn't in condition to compete at the Olympic tennis tournament - which also will be held at Wimbledon. 

"This is one of the saddest moments of my career," Nadal said in a statement. "I have to think about my companions, I can't be selfish and I have to think of what's best for Spanish sport, especially tennis and Spanish players, and give fellow sportsmen with better preparation the chance to compete. 

"I tried to hurry my preparations and training to the very last minute, but it was not to be." 

The 26-year-old Spaniard has won two Wimbledon titles and claimed gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. 

"You can imagine how difficult it was to take this decision," he said. 

Nadal had been the last of the four singles finalists from 2008 in the London Olympics. Men's silver medal winner Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, who Nadal beat in straight sets in Beijing, and women's finalists Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina of Russia, will also be missing from the London Games.

World #2 Novak Djokovic claimed Bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and World #1 Roger Federer won the Men's Doubles gold medal with Stanslas Wawrinka but has stated one of his main goals is to complete "the Career Golden Slam" by winning a gold medal in singles. Federer won his 7th Wimbledon title two weeks ago and must be considered the favorite to repeat that win his first Olympic Men's Singles gold medal since the tournament will be played on the same surface at the same venue starting on July 28th.

Nadal will be replaced by the pulchritudinous Feliciano Lopez, World #30, on the Spanish Olympic Men's tennis team.

OPM: Federal Same-Sex DP Benefits Extend To Kids

Good news from the Obama Administration today! The Office of Personnel Management, basically the Human Resources Office for the entire nearly 2 million strong federal workforce, announced a federal regulation change today which would extend the popular aspect of the Affordable Care Act (more commonly known as ObamaCare) that allows children under 26 years old to be added to their parents' health plans to include federal employees in same-sex domestic partnerships.

The proposed rule isn’t expected to have a significant economic impact because it only adds additional groups to the list of groups eligible for coverage under the federal health care system. 

As part of the proposed rule change, federal health program regulations would be amended so that if a federal employee doesn’t establish that insuring their partner’s child qualifies for favorable tax treatment under applicable tax laws, the employee can be taxed on the fair market value of the coverage. As part of the process for seeking comments, OPM is specifically seeking input on how the fair market value might be calculated for different plans, including, for example, a high deductible health plan with a health reimbursement arrangement. 

The proposed rule change means the children of same-sex partners of federal employees would have access to benefits unavailable to the same-sex partners themselves. The Obama administration has said it cannot extend major benefits — health and pension benefits — to the same-sex partners of federal employees because of the Defense of Marriage Act. Legislation that would extend those benefits, called the Domestic Partnership Benefits & Obligations Act, was reported out of the Senate committee of jurisdiction in May, but hasn’t yet come to a floor vote.

This is excellent news! Congratulations to the Family Equality Council who had been working on this change for nearly a year to getting it announced and presumably enacted soon.

Celebrity Friday: Openly Gay Actors Get Emmy Nods

Jim Parsons and Jesse Tyler Ferguson are openly gay actors on hit comedy series The Big Bang Theory and Modern Family, respectively. On Thursday they were both nominated for Emmy awards for their work. Parsons has won 2 Emmys for Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and Ferguson has been nominated for all3 seasons that he has appeared in his show, losing to his co-stars Eric Stonestreet (Cameron) in 2010 and Ty Burrell (Phil Dunphy) in 2011.

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God

Survey Indicates 5% Of Canadians are LGBT

Joe.My.God called attention to a recent poll in Canada which indicates that 5% of respondents said that they were LGBT.

Younger Canadians are far more likely to say they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender than older Canadians, with 10% of those aged 18 to 34 answering the question with a “yes,” compared to 2% or 3% in the four older age categories. 

[...] 

Asked whether they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, Liberal voters were least likely to say “yes,” at just 1%, whereas 3% of Conservative voters answered “yes.” Compare that to Canada’s three newer parties — the NDP, Green and Bloc — with rates ranging from 7% to 10%.

I wonder what the results would look like if we did a poll like this in the United States?

MOVIE REVIEW: Magic Mike

The Other Half and I saw "The Citizen Kane of Stripper Movies" July 4th weekend when I was visiting Los Angeles. Magic Mike stars Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Matthew McConaughey and Adam Rodriguez, some of the most attractive male stars on television.

There have been recent press reports about the surprising appeal of Magic Mike to gay male audiences. This is somewhat bizarre, because why wouldn't a movie about male strippers, which by definition is about the objectification of the male body, be attractive to men who find the male body attractive?


It is true that there are lots of images and scenes of quite scantily clad guys in the movie, with the primary focus being on Channing Tatum. Tatum is very easy on the eyes, and he is also a very talented dancer, which are some of the film's best assets (literally). Tatum is basically in every scene, usually with Pettyfer, who is also pretty easy on the eyes in a scruffy young white dude way.


The movie currently has a 78% rating on rottentomatoes.com (though, tellingly, it has a 68% from audiences) and is doing well-enough at the box office to not tarnish Tatum's rising profile as Hollywood's next golden boy. He puts on a good, believable performance and raises it from something which really could have become pue schlock.


However, as a film, especially one directed by an Oscar-winning director, Magic Mike has numerous flaws, primarily script related. The film was written by Reid Carolin and features stupefying dialogue and a strikingly lackadaisical plot. In the first 5 minutes (the "meet-cute" scene between Tatum and Pettyfer on a construction site I turned to The Other Half and said, "is this film improvised or is there a screenplay?" The scene plays like the director said: "Ok, act as if you are meeting for the first time and Alex, you play an aimless stoner guy trying to find himself and Channing you play a guy who is a construction worker by day and stripper by night, juggling multiple responsibilities to get ahead in life. Action!" It's a specific choice, made by the writer and director (I think!) in order to communicate a sense of verisimilitude to these characters. The plot is (very) loosely based on the ingenue-star conflict of All About Eve, with Pettyfer ("The Kid") being the ingenue new to the world of taking your clothes off for money and Tatum ("Magic Mike") being the established star and chief draw at the night club run by McConaughey.


Sadly, Bomer, Rodriguez and Mangianello are mostly (very pretty) window dressing and have a mere handful of lines between them. They do a good job in the ensemble stripper scenes of increasing the eye candy portions to nearly overwhelming levels, and acquit themselves well in their brief solos also. 


The film chooses to make all of the characters heterosexual, and places the context of the stripping as hot straight guys undressing for the entertainment (titillation?) of giggly straight women. The inherent exploitative nature of what is essentially the commodification of youth and beauty can not be avoided, although one interesting spin is that it is male youth and male beauty being packaged and sold (by both the film and the characters in the film). It is somewhat odd (and one could argue, fueled by either homophobia or heterosexism) that there is absolutely no gay content in the movie whatsoever. That being said maybe that's a good thing, because many of the characters do disturbing things, with the role of drugs in the night life culture Magic Mike is a part of becomes increasingly prominent, and problematic.


That being said, the film is probably worth seeing, as a mindless diversion and somewhat titillating fun, sort of like going to a strip club itself. But you won't feel good about the time and money spent on the experience afterwards!

Title: Magic Mike.
Director: Steven Soderbergh.
Running Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated R for pervasive sexual content, brief graphic nudity, language and some drug use.
Release Date: June 29, 2012.
Viewing Date: July 7, 2012.

Writing: D.
Acting: B.
Visuals: A.
Impact: C.

Overall Grade: B-/C+ (2.5/4.0).

GRAPHIC: 23 States Without Gay Civil Rights

There are 23 states where you can be fired for being transgender, gay or lesbian without any legal recourse under state law. If Congress were to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, that would produce a federal law that would prohibit anti-LGBT employment discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has ruled that transgender employment discrimination is illegal due to Title IX of the 1964 Civil Rights Act inclusion of "sex" as a category.

hat/tip to Queer IV

Boy Scouts Reaffirm Anti-Gay Position

Zach Wahls, famous straight ally from Iowa with two lesbian moms,
 is an Eagle Scout trying to change the homophobic Boy Scout policy

The Boy Scouts of America, one of the most capriciously anti-gay private organizations in the United States, announced on Tuesday that they were going to retain their notorious policy of excluding openly gay boys who want to belong to the organization, after a an alleged review that took two years. (This policy also excludes boys who are openly atheist or agnostic.)

According to the AP:

The Scouts' national spokesman, Deron Smith, told The Associated Press that an 11-member special committee, formed discreetly by top Scout leaders in 2010, came to the conclusion that the exclusion policy "is absolutely the best policy" for the 102-year-old organization. 

[...]

As a result of the committee's decision, the Scouts' national executive board will take no further action on a resolution submitted at its recent national conference asking for reconsideration of the membership policy.

The Scouts' chief executive, Bob Mazzuca, contended that most Scout families support the policy, which applies to both adult leaders and Scouts.

"The vast majority of the parents of youth we serve value their right to address issues of same-sex orientation within their family, with spiritual advisers and at the appropriate time and in the right setting," Mazzuca said. "We fully understand that no single policy will accommodate the many diverse views among our membership or society."

Gee, I wonder how they know that the vast majority of current Scout parents believe  the current policy is correct? Could it be because the vast majority of current Scout parents are Mormon?

It is somewhat curious that the policy was announced now, because when the review was announced way back in 2010, it was said that the decision would happen in 2013. But, it is believed that the outgoing president of the organization supports the policy while the incoming president of the organization does not.

The Boy Scouts of America have the right to discriminate in their membership on the basis of sexual orientation due to a famous Supreme Court case from 2000 called Dale v. United States which was argued by Freedom to Marry founder and executive director Evan Wolfson when he worked for Lambda  Legal. Despite winning the case, the Boy Scouts have become increasingly controversial for their bizarre policy, which is clearly out of step with the rest of society becoming more tolerant towards homosexuality. The Girl Scouts of America have long allowed (and affirmed) the participation of LGBT parents and kids and Boy Scouts organizations in other countries like Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom all allow openly gay people to belong to the organization, thus demonstrating exactly how capricious the Boy Scouts of America policy is.

Hat/tip to TowleRoad.

Godless Wednesday: Atheist Billboard in Omaha,NE

In Omaha, Nebraska a billboard sponsored by local organization of religious skeptics called the United Coalition of Reason is causing some interesting conversations about godlessness.

The local television channel KMTV reports:

Thousands pass by it on a given day and everyone we spoke with has an opinion.  

Gina Jensen said, "I didn't know there was a club that didn't believe in God." 

Emlyn Forsuh added,  "I was raised to believe in god and now someone says they don't believe in god so I don't like it." 

"It's free speech right so people can put what ever they want up and I don't know what this club is about but I believe in God," Glen Tonack said.  

"We put it up as a beacon to let them know that they're not alone," explained William Newman. 
Newman is with Omaha's chapter of United Coalition of Reason and the man behind the sign.   

"The billboard is designed so it's not degenerating anyone's religion. We're not coming out and telling people that there is no God and we're not trying to convert anyone to Atheism," he said. 

The ad is raising the profile of CoR just a few weeks before the 4th Annual Midwest Freethought Conference will be held at University of Nebraska at Omaha August 3-5.

I find it interesting how bitter and indignant religious people get when non-religious people assert that we have the same rights to express our non-belief as religious people have to profess their belief.

FAIR Education Act Survives Ballot Repeal Effort

Good news! The heterosexual supremacists who have been apoplectic at the thought that school curriculum in the state of California which would have to include information about the contributions of LGBT Californians have failed to gather enough signatures to place their repeal measure on the November 2012 ballot.

The Mercury News reports:

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Opponents of a law that requires California public schools to cover the contributions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people have again failed to qualify a ballot measure that would have overturned the requirement. 

Pacific Justice Institute lawyer Kevin Snider said the Stop SB48 campaign did not gather enough signatures by Monday's deadline to put an initiative on the 2014 ballot that would exclude sexual minorities from the list of groups whose roles in history and social science schools must teach. 

Snider estimates that the all-volunteer petition circulating effort, which focused largely on churches, collected about 446,000 signatures out of the 504,760 required.

It should be emphasized that this is the second attempt to nullify the FAIR Education Act which has now failed. Previously, the "bad guys" had attempted to file a referendum measure, for which they also could not collect enough signatures.

hat/tip to Joe.My.God

West Indian Born Lt. Gov (R-FL) Faces Lesbian Scandal

Jennifer Carroll is the Lieutenant Governor of Florida, and the first Black, female Republican ever elected to statewide office in the state. Carroll, 53, was born in Trinidad is now facing a scandal involving a former employee in her office named Carletha Cole who claims that she found her boss in a compromising position with another woman.

According to the Miami Herald:

In the filing, Cole contends that she witnessed Carroll and a top aide, Beatriz Ramos, in a "compromising position" inside Carroll's office, that Carroll's chief of staff secretly recorded conversations routinely at the direction of those working for Gov. Rick Scott, and that the trash can at Cole's desk might have been deliberately set ablaze following an argument between her and Ramos. 

Cole also said Ramos was living at Carroll's home and at one point she was ordered by Ramos to find adjoining hotel rooms for Carroll and Ramos when they traveled. Cole said that she was "scolded" by an agent with Carroll's security team when she placed Ramos next door to Carroll when the lieutenant governor and her husband traveled last summer to Puerto Rico. The agent told her to not do it again, Cole says, although he did not explain why. 

Carroll, a former Navy officer who is also a mother of three, says the allegations are all lies.

However, this is not all that Carroll is saying about the allegations that the married mother has a "gal pal." She also claims that the allegations can not be true because black women who look like her do not "engage in relationships like that."

"The problem is that when you have these accusations that come out, it's not just one person you're attacking. It's an entire family. My husband doesn't want to hear that. He knows the type of woman I am. I mean, my kids know the type of woman I am. For twenty-nine years - I'm the one that's married for twenty-nine years. The accuser is the one that's been single for a long time. So usually black women that look like me don't engage in relationships like that."

 Really? Really? What do you think a lesbian looks like? As TransGriot would say: "Shut up, fool!"


Hat/tip to Rod 2.0.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/11/v-fullstory/2891120/apnewsbreak-ex-carroll-aide-alleges.html#storylink=cpy

Obama Won't Attend International AIDS Conference

Hmmmm! The White House has just sent out a press release which acknowledges that President Barack Obama will not be attending the 19th International AIDS Conference, which starts Sunday in Washington, DC despite previously lobbying for the event to come to the United States for the first time in 22 years.

From the press release:

THE WHITE HOUSEOffice of the Press SecretaryFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEJuly 16, 2012 Obama Administration to Participate in the 19^th International AIDS Conference “…we can end this pandemic.  We can beat this disease.  We can win this fight.  We just have to keep at it, steady, persistent -- today, tomorrow, every day until we get to zero.  And as long as I have the honor of being your President, that’s what this administration is going to keep doing.” --President Obama, World AIDS Day, December 1, 2011  As the 19^th International AIDS Conference comes to the U.S. for the first time since 1990 -- thanks to bipartisan action by Presidents Obama and Bush and the Congress to lift the ban on people living with HIV entering the country -- we are at a tipping point in the fight against AIDS.  Under the President’s leadership, the Administration has increased overall funding to combat HIV/AIDS to record levels. We have launched the first comprehensive National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States to prevent and treat HIV in America. Globally, the Obama Administration has committed to treating 6 million people by the end of 2013 and is increasing the impact and sustainability of our investments. Senior Obama Administration Officials will participate in the International AIDS Conference, including:  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius; U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby; Director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy Grant Colfax; Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH; and others. Continuing his personal engagement on this issue, the President will provide a brief video message to welcome Conference attendees from around the world to Washington. The video will be played at the Conference venue and will be made available in coming days at www.whitehouse.gov.  In addition, the White House will also host a reception on July 26th to honor those people living with HIV and to thank men and women who have been fighting with dignity on the frontlines against this disease.  Further details about that event will be provided at a later date.
 For more information on the Obama Administration’s efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, see:www.whitehouse.gov/onap and www.aids.gov.

There were several AIDS groups which were lobbying the White House to have the President attend the event. 

Is True Blood Season 5 Gonna Get Better?

I've been actually had a somewhat ambivalent reaction to the first half of Season 5. It's been good, but I fear it has not been up to the show's usual intense (and high quality) standards. That could be because there's been reduced amount of gay content compared to previous seasons, I'm not sure.The only new male eye candy is Chris Meloni, and he has been overdressed most of the time. There is no one who is as pretty as Season 3's Mehcad Brooks playing Eggs Benedict or Season 4's Kevin Alejandro as Lafayett'es boyfriend Jesus Velazquez. Seeing more of Joe Manganiello in Season 5 is a good thing, it must be noted.

If you haven't seen this season yet, the biggest and most interesting developments have involved Tara, who is unfortunately played by one of the least convincing actresses on the show. The other main development has been the forced alignment of Bill and Eric to work together under pain of "the true death."However, the second half of the season seems to be pretty exciting.Creator and Executive Producer of the first 5 seasons Alan Ball is ending his day-to-day connection with the show after this season concludes.

Apparently at the recently concluded Comic-Con in San Diego a trailer for Season 5's second half was released. You can see it at the top of this post.

 hat/tip to Wonder Man

Federer Begins 287th Week at #1, Besting Sampras

Roger Federer is assured of being #1 on the ATP Tour for the 287th week, the most of any player, finally surpassing the previous record of 286 weeks held by his idol Pete Sampras by winning the 2012 Wimbledon championships, his seventh, and 17th major singles title overall on Sunday July 8th. Federer is a mere 75 points ahead of Novak Djokovic but significantly ahead of Rafael Nadal. Both of those players have US Open final points to defend at the end of the summer, which Federer does not. Federer has wanted the record for most weeks at #1 for quite awhile, having lost his #1 ranking in June 2010 to Nadal.

Federer is now 30 years old, more than 5 years older than his main rivals, 11-time major champion Nadal and 5-time major champion Djokovic, who are really in their prime tennis years. He will turn 31 on August 8th, but before then the London Olympics will be held, at the grass courts of the All-England Lawn Tennis Club. The one item missing from Federer's bulging trophy case is an Olympic Gold Medal for Singles.

Will he achieve that goal as well? I wouldn't bet against him. The Olympic tournament will be played as best-of-3 sets until the final which will be best-of-five sets.

Eye Candy: Nate Gill

Nate Gill is young model (born April 3, 1989) who is represented by one of the top modelling agencies in the world, Soul Artist Management. They list him at 6'1" with a size 15 (gulp!) shoe and waist and inseam at 32". He describes himself on Facebook as "an athlete who happens to be photogenic." I just wish he would smile more.

I think I would agree with that, wouldn't you?

Serena Wins 43rd WTA Title in Stanford

Serena Williams won her 43rd career WTA title by defeating Coco VandeWeghe 7-5 6-3 in the first all-American final on U.S. soil since 2004 at the Bank of the West classic on the campus of Stanford University. One week after winning her 5th Wimbledon title to tie her sister Venus's total, Serena now has won the same number of WTA tour titles overall.

Serena won this tournament last year and by defending her title will make it easier for her to advance in the rankings.

U.S. House Republican Endorses Marriage Equality

Cuban-American Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is a longtime Republican congressperson from Florida. She made headlines earlier this year by co-sponsoring the Respect for Marriage Act which would repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act.

This week she made even more news by becoming the first Republican congressperson to endorse marriage equality:

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the only Republican co-sponsor of legislation to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, confirmed on Tuesday she supports same-sex marriage after remarks she delivered at the launch of Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry at the Capitol Hill Club in D.C. 

[...] 

While holding pro-LGBT views, Ros-Lehtinen endorsed presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney early on. Romney has endorsed a U.S. constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and has pledged to resume defense of DOMA in court.

Speaking to the Blade, Ros-Lehtinen said she backs Romney because of his positions on economic issues while acknowledging the two may hold differing positions on other issues.

I wonder who the next Republican congressperson to endorse marriage equality will be? And I wonder if Rep. Ros-Lehtinen will sign on to the recently filed amicus brief in the Golinski case which is challenging the constitutionality of DOMA?

GRAPHIC: The Uselessness of Congress

Ezra Klein has a list of fourteen reasons why this (the 112th) Congress is the worst ever. One of the primary reasons can be encapsulated in the above image which graphically demonstrates how Republican control of the U.S. House of Representatives, led by John Boehner and Eric Cantor, have made the institution's productivity significantly worse. Most people would say this is due to divided government (Republicans control of one house of Congress while the Democrats control the other house) but Klein refutes this:

Now you may say that this simply reflects divided government. But while there are many instances of divided government on that chart — the 104th Congress, for instance, when Newt Gingrich and his Republican revolutionaries faced off against President Bill Clinton and still managed to pass 333 public laws — there’s no session of Congress with such a poor record of productivity.

Then again, if divided government goes away, due to redistricting and timing (Democrats need to defend 23 seats compared to 10 for Republicans thanks to a banner year in 2006), we might look back with fondness at the lack of scary legislation coming out of Congress!

POLL: Utah Voters Trending (Slowly) Towards Equality

A new poll from Utah demonstrates that even in this deep red, almost theocratic state, popular support for legal recognition for same-sex couples has been increasing over time. The figure above illustrates the shift in responses to the "tripartite question" which offers voters to choose between gay marriage, civil unions and no legal recognition for same-sex couples. What the figure demonstrates is that there has been a sharp drop in the number who choose the most homophobic and discriminatory option (no legal recognition), falling from 54% in November 2004 to 29% in February 2012. While that was happening the percentage in favor of full marriage equality has barely budget from 21% support to 28% now.

This is Utah we are talking about, so the influence of the Mormon church, a.k.a. the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or LDS Church is a large factor. The graphic below demonstrates opinions on marriage equality separated by religious belief and membership in the LDS church.

Note that among LDS support for marriage equality has been consistently below 10% for the last 8 years, while nearly three-quarters of non-religious folk now support full marriage equality.
One should take note that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is a member of the LDS church, and these numbers may explain his fervent opposition to marriage equality and can help predict how a Romney administration would address the issue of legal recognition for same-sex couples by the federal government. (HINT: it's not good!)

Hat/tip to TowleRoad

WATCH: Trailer for Walking Dead Season 3

Seems like it wasn't too long ago that the amazing last episode of Season 2 of Waking Dead aired on AMC, but the trailer for Season 3 of the hit cable television show about the zombie apocalypse is available now!

Celebrity Friday: U.S. Rep. Barney Frank Marries

Barney Frank, 72, the longtime openly gay Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts, married his longtime partner, Jim Ready, 42, last weekend in Newton, MA. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick officiated the wedding.

The New York Times reported the news:

Mr. Frank, 72, and Mr. Ready, 42, were married in Newton, Mass., part of Mr. Frank’s district, on Saturday in a low-key ceremony on the banks of the Charles River. Gov. Deval L. Patrick of Massachusetts officiated. The guests included Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, as well as Senator John Kerry and Representatives Dennis J. Kucinich and Steny H. Hoyer. 

Mr. Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, became, in 1987, the first sitting member of Congress to volunteer that he was gay. He is now the first to be married to a partner of the same sex. Both bridegrooms said they recognized the historical significance of the ceremony, which lasted less than five minutes. Governor Patrick told the guests that Mr. Frank had requested that the service “be short and to the point.”

Talking Points Memo has the text of the wedding vows and more photos of the happy couple.