EXTRA: A Hannukah wedding?

Vernita Gray and Patricia Ewert on Wednesday became the first same-gender couple in Illinois to marry – with the ceremony being performed at their home by Cook County Associate Judge Patricia Logue.

The couple were the ones who were able to get a marriage license just over seven months before the law permitting such marriages to occur because Gray has brain tumors and breast cancer – and it was considered unlikely she would survive long enough to have a wedding in June 2014.

ALTHOUGH THE COUPLE had the legal benefits of a civil union – which was the political maneuver approved two years ago to try to appease those people who will argue that some people should not be permitted to have their relationships legitimized by the concept of marriage.

For what it’s worth, society as we know it did not immediately crumble into dust the moment two women were permitted to marry. Nor will it do so once such marriages become commonplace later in 2014. This really will be an issue that future generations will wonder why we made such a big deal out of it!

For those who like wedding trivia, the couple had their first dance to a friend who sang “At Last,” the ballad made famous by Etta James, but who some people think Beyonce invented.

So here’s hoping that Gray and Ewert enjoy what is left of their lives together. Also consider that it may be appropriate that the wedding took place on the date of the first night of Hanukkah – which inherently remembers the ongoing survival of the Jewish people in the face of forces that would just as soon have seen them disappear.

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