The Perfect Storm

      Several years ago, my oldest daughter got engaged to be married.  One evening, she called me so that her fiance could properly ask the father of the bride-to-be for permission to marry his intended.  That impressed me!  I thought good breeding was a thing of the past.  It didn't matter to me that he's Mexican-American in the truest sense (meaning he was born in Mexico, immigrated to the U.S. at the age of five, and is a legally naturalized American citizen).  What mattered is that he and my daughter were, and are still, in love.  I know that according to the ultra-liberal mindset, I'm supposed to be a racist because I'm White.  But, racism isn't a White problem; it's a human problem.  I think I'll write a post in the future covering nonsensical ideologies such as the Liberal mindset, the Conservative mindset, binary genderism, etc...  For now, however, I digress.

    In the months that followed, my daughter and wife were on the phone with each other a lot of the time.  My daughter lived in California at the time, serving in the United States Air Force; but she wanted to get married in her small southeast Kansas hometown.  My wife gladly took up the mantle of making the local arrangements, but it wasn't easy because the date chosen for the wedding turned out to be the day before Easter.  After talking to every local member of the clergy, my wife was finally able to secure the use of a church, but there wasn't a minister around who would officiate a wedding on Easter weekend.  She was nearly in tears as she confided in me that she felt as though she was failing our daughter.  It's said that every problem is an opportunity in disguise.  The problem, as it turns out, doesn't have to be yours in order for the opportunity to present itself to you.  I can honestly say, it was one of the few times in my life that I actually recognized the opportunity that was staring me in the face.  I got online and, after a bit of research, found the website for the Universal Life Church.  In no time, I was a member of the clergy, myself.  There was some concern about how I would manage giving my daughter's hand in marriage and officiate the wedding, but I had a plan.  When you have a plan, you can pull off just about anything.

    In the years since, I haven't officiated any weddings, but it's often been on my mind to start a small business venture as a wedding officiant.  I've had the AI program on my computer (Microsoft's CoPilot) create a plan and am currently kicking around some ideas.  I'll be looking for a venue, preferably to purchase.  For one, in any rural area like southeast Kansas, you'd be hard pressed to find a landlord that would rent to someone who intends to start an LGBTQ+ friendly wedding chapel.  Even more so if the buyer/officiant is a transwoman complete with long hair, make-up, and growing breasts. I'll most likely be setting myself up to be viewed as a pariah.  Oh well!  As they say, this isn't my first rodeo.  As a handicapped person, I'm used to facing bias and stigma.  I'm also going to be seeking out LGBTQ+ organizations offering grants for LGBTQ+ non-profits.  Those are just the early steps; there's so much more I'll need to do.

    You know how, meteorologically, when two strong storm fronts collide into each other they create "the perfect storm"?  Well, figuratively, that may be what we end up with here.  Most southeast Kansans are a bunch of (to quote an Eddie Murphy phrase from the 1982 movie, "48 Hours") "backwards-ass country fucks".  No disrespect intended.  They're good people, for the most part.  But, like most of our society, they're anti-LGBTQ+.  Especially the trans part of that spectrum.  So, a trans-owned, LGBTQ+ friendly wedding officiant isn't going to be the most welcome business model to hit town.  In short, I can expect to meet strong resistance.  But, then, so can they... and that's where we'll get that storm I mentioned.  It's bad enough that the president of the United States and every Republican governor is violating my right to pursue happiness, I'll be damned if a bunch of "backwards-ass country fucks" are going to get away with it, too.  (Cue the crash of thunder.)  This is something I whole-heartedly believe needs to happen, and I seriously intend to see that it does.

    I would really love to get some feedback on this.  Feel free to leave me a message, either here, or on social media.  I'd really love to know what others think.  So... hit me up!