How Wedding Media can be Significant for LGBTQ Individuals

Barbara Sinclair of Brooksville, Fla. and son Dean Whitcomb march in the St. Pete Pride parade representing the Hernando County chapter of PFLAG.               Photo by Laura Herrera

Because of Monday’s lecture, I began to think about what is worth telling through multimedia.
After watching the MediaStorm piece, A Thousand More, it is really hard to imagine anything I might work on in J2150 as significant in comparison to the story of 9-year-old Philip Mayer who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy. But I'm working towards it.

I have a guilty pleasure when it comes to anything wedding related. From alternative wedding blogs, like Offbeat Bride, to ‘Say Yes to the Dress,’ I love seeing weddings come together. One of my favorite indulgences is the New York Times’ Vows section.

NYT Vows is basically soon-to-be-wed couples telling the stories of how they found each other. While these are beautifully put together multimedia stories (I wouldn’t expect anything less from the New York Times), I’d categorize them as fairly insignificant. How does a couple getting married compare to the unique story of Philip Mayer?

While it would be unreasonable to ever compare the two, I realized NYT Vows does inadvertently add important social commentary when it comes to sharing the stories of queer* couples.

Most wedding coverage is really hetero-normative. It’s rare, though not unheard of, to see queer couples featured on mainstream wedding shows. NYT Vows is not only more proportional in the population they feature, but because queer couples are able to share their own stories they have the ability to politicize their story as much or as little as they want.

Interestingly enough, every story of a queer couple I have watched has included a political reference. Some talk in-depth about how they never imagined marriage would be a legal reality for them. For others, it is as simple as “Thank you, Governor Cuomo.” This shows the unique cultural environment queer relationships form under in the United States.

To me, that seems pretty significant.


*Queer in this context is used as an umbrella term for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and other identities.

Get to Know Me

The Get to Know Me vision project is a cultural awareness program geared towards high school, college-bound seniors. University student volunteers led high schools students through a series of discussions about their (the high school student's) own communities, stereotypes and how they break those stereotypes.
The program aims to help them understand similarities between them and those who, on the outside, seem "different," and encourages them to attend cultural events when they get to college. Get to Know Me's vision is to create inclusive, space college campuses for every student.

So, get to know me!

-Concept, interviews, video and editing by Laura Herrera (University of Missouri-Columbia)
-Music is "Lessons Learned" by Matt & Kim
-Opening quote by Amy Maddox
-Thank you to all participants and a special thank you to Lisa La Monica from Dr. Michael M. Krop High for all her guidance and help.
-Dedicated to the 2010-2011 Chancellor's Leadership Class.

*Personal note: Yes, this project was created as part of the Chancellor's Leadership Class; however, within the next year to two years, I do hope to see this project become a reality.