Children and Weddings

Dear Ann Landers,

I have found your advice to be sensible and refreshingly free of bias -- so it came as a shock to read your response to "Dilemma in the Dairy State," in which you wrote that a gay union ceremony is too confusing for a 9-year old. The confusion may be yours. Most children I know have an uncanny ability to recognize love and devotion in a couple, whether they are same-sex or opposite-sex. They are often blessedly free of the prejudice that we adults have yet to teach them.

In addition, I recognize that you know more about weddings than I, and that the age of 9 is "beyond the flower girl range" -- but my fiancee's 9-year old is delighted at the prospect of paving her mother's bridal walk with rose petals. And isn't there need for more delight in this world, rather than less?

Sincerely,
The Rev. John A. Nelson
First Congregational United Church of Christ
Gloversville, NY

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