The Marry Month of June

We are on the threshold of June, the month traditionally selected by couples to wed, and now seems the perfect time to bring up the topic of marriage. Freed Marcroft celebrates and advocates for the rights of all people to marry the person of their choosing — including the right to become unmarried. The tradition of holding weddings in June “dates back to Roman times when they celebrated the festival of the deity Juno and his wife Jupiter, who was the goddess of marriage and childbirth, on the first day of June.”

June is still the month most often selected for weddings, and contemporary history continues to connect June with marriage.

Here’s what is on our minds:

• Last week, on May 23, just a week shy of the “marry” month of June, “The Republic of Ireland voted overwhelmingly to legalise same-sex marriage in a historic referendum. More than 62% voted in favour of amending the country’s constitution to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. It is the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage through a popular vote.” Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has indicated that legislation would be brought through the Oireachtas, Ireland’s National Parliament, in June or July 2015 to make same-sex marriage a reality. We’re hoping for June.
• June 12 is Loving Day. Loving Day – with its beautifully apt name – fittingly celebrates the 1967 landmark Loving v. Virginia decision which found that legal interracial marriages from one state had to be recognized by a state that didn’t allow interracial marriages.
• Another seminal moment may once again connect marriage with the month of June when the U. S. Supreme Court decides within the next few weeks – very likely by the end of June – whether to rule in favor of same-sex marriage equality. The issue in the case, Obergefell v. Hodges, is two-pronged: “… whether states are required to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and whether states have to recognize same sex-marriage licenses from other states under the 14th Amendment.”
• Last week, Meghan was sworn in as a Justice of the Peace and can marry couples wishing to formalize their relationship. She is thrilled to be able to participate in this happiest of rituals in an official way.

After all, “what is so rare as a day in June,” especially if it’s a wedding day.