River Cruise
Thirty eight of us travelled to Salford Quays for a “City River Tour” on the Princess Katherine. It was almost an exclusive private hire event, although a few members of the public also boarded!
Earlier we dined in Pizza Express where we enjoyed the “meal deal” – a pizza and a drink for £10.
The cruise leaves on the hour from the Millenium Footbridge along Manchester’s historic Ship Canal and River Irwell. We discovered the industrial heartland of Salford and Manchester from a different perspective.
The commentary brought to life the tales behind the canal, its emblematic structures, and the landmarks that have moulded the city’s skyline.
The journey offered a refreshing and unforgettable view of Manchester, blending past and present in a truly immersive experience.
More photos can be seen here.
First same sex marriage
Richard John Baker (Jack) and James Michael McConnell are the first same-sex couple known to have obtained a marriage licence and a marriage certificate. The wedding ceremony took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA on 3 September 1971, yet remained unrecorded and unrecognised by both state and federal governmental entities.
The marriages’ validity was affirmed on 18 September 2018, by a judge in Blue Earth County, who declared “The [1971] marriage … to be in all respects valid” and ordered the Clerk of Court to record it. Since the marriage had never been declared nullified, it was ruled to have been valid for its entire duration.
The two men met in the 1960s and fell in love. Then Michael told Jack he wanted something more than a private promise. He wanted marriage. Their first attempt to get a marriage license was denied.
Eventually, they found a legal path that allowed them to marry. Their ceremony was performed by a Methodist minister, and friends made them a wedding cake with two grooms.
Fifty-five years later, they are still together. Two grooms. Still side by side.
New York’s first public gay marriage ceremony
The ceremony on 25 November 1968 was officiated by asexual Japanese pop artist Yayoi Kusama (“The High Priestess of Polka Dots”) at the Church of Self-Obliteration. For the ceremony, she designed a two-person “orgy” wedding gown meant to be worn by the grooms, and she used a phone book instead of a Bible.
The wedding occurred at a time when homosexuality was still illegal, diagnosed as a mental illness, and punishable by jail time, firing, loss of parental rights, and public shaming in newspapers. During the event, Kusama said it wasn’t gay people who were abnormal, but society’s reaction to them that made them seem so.
“The purpose of this marriage is to bring out into the open what has hitherto been concealed,” she said during the ceremony. “Love can now be free, but to make it completely free, it must be liberated from all sexual frustrations imposed by society. Homosexuality is a normal physical and psychological reaction, neither to be extolled or decried.”
The event, entitled “Homosexual Marriage,” shows the two slender white grooms lying naked together, their bodies covered in painted polka dots (which Kusama incorporated into many of her works throughout her lifetime), in a room filled with objects resembling bulbous, polka-dotted vegetables.
Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act
Although same-sex couples could enter into Civil Partnerships (since 2006), they were not permitted to marry. This Act gave same-sex couples the opportunity to get married just like any other couple. Same-sex couples already in a Civil Partnership could also now convert this to a marriage.
It came into effect in 2014. The first same-sex marriages took place in England and Wales on 29 March 2014.
