Queerly Beloved

Cable TV

Cable is surprisingly short on same-sex weddings in scripted television – especially ones that actually end up making it all the way to "I do." In fact, if it weren't for Queer as Folk and a single episode of the Canadian series Degrassi: The Next Generation, there wouldn't be a single one.

Queer as Folk

Probably known better for putting "sex" than "wedding" into "same-sex," Queer as Folk actually had quite a few weddings, proposals, planned weddings, and wedding rings – and one incredibly romantic wedding night.

Of course, since the male characters started out with a profound allergy to any form of romantic commitment, it all began with the planned nuptials of the show's one lesbian couple, Melanie (Michelle Clunie) and Lindsay (Thea Gill), in 2002. They marched down the aisle – butch-femme wedding outfits, lesbian minister, k.d. lang music playing as the rice showered down, tissue-clutching friends and all – in the series' second season.

It took the guys two more years to catch up, when hunky HIV-positive Ben (Robert Gant) asked boyfriend Michael (Hal Sparks) to make it legal on a trip to Canada in 2004. They got married in a shower of confetti, their adopted son, Hunter (Harris Allan), and Michael's strident anti-marriage best friend, Brian (Gale Harold), as witnesses. This was the first legal same-sex wedding in television history, and it was followed by television's first and still only same-sex wedding night.

The following year, Brian threw his scruples to the wind and proposed to longtime unconventional boyfriend Justin (Randy Harrison). After sending engraved invitations to all their friends, buying a house in the suburbs, and trying on designer tuxes, they came to their senses and called the wedding off at the rehearsal dinner. Diehard romantics can take comfort in knowing they didn't return the wedding rings.

Degrassi: The Next Generation

Oh, Canada. Not only do you let the gays get married legally in your fair land, you let them do it on television. Not only did QAF's Ben and Michael get married in Toronto, but in the second part of a 2004 two-part episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation, teenager and series regular Ashley's (Melissa McIntyre) dad gets married to his male partner. The episode isn't exactly unalloyed bliss, however. Ashley's boyfriend Craig (Jake Epstein), who had gone shopping for his wedding outfit with gay bud Marco (Adamo Ruggiero), has a nervous breakdown at the wedding. You can view the episode free on the show's website.

Six Feet Under: “Everyone’s Waiting” (2005)

HBO's Six Feet Under broke a lot of ground for gay characters, but barely scratched the surface as far as same-sex weddings go. David (Michael C. Hall) and Keith (Mathew St. Patrick) get the Four Weddings and a Funeral treatment when we see a quick still photo of them exchanging vows in the future at the series finale.