Tonight's symbolic gay wedding adds Jay Leno to the guest list

There's been a lot of talk about gay marriage lately, particularly regarding the recent overturn of the same-sex marriage ban in California (and subsequent successful drive to get the ban put back on the 2008 ballot, which everyone pretty much saw coming). We've been hearing about gay celebs and normal folks alike making long-overdue plans to marry under the new open-arms policy, however short-lived it may turn out to be, and may have even seen the first ever American celebrity gay marriage false rumor, when T.R. Knight had to actually shush runaway gossip that he would be marrying his boyfriend Mark Cornelsen.

But before any of this came to pass, folks in Los Angeles planned a mass symbolic commitment ceremony to kick of Gay Pride Month, featuring hosts Knight and Cornelsen (which kicked off the rumors) and the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Now that same-sex marriage is actually legal, the commitment at the ceremony will actually be a commitment to fight marriage inequality, not an actual "I now pronounce you husband and husband" kind of thing, which I actually prefer to the "Circuit Party Wedding" scenario that the initial coverage was conjuring up.

Anyway, last night E! News' Marc Malkin reported that the non-wedding party would be welcoming another high-profile guest: Jay Leno. Now, Leno came under fire lately for his rather numbskulled "gayest look" interview of Ryan Phillippe, so it's a bit of a surprise to see him attached as the biggest name associated with the event. A rep for the event had this to say about his involvement:

“He said that he is from Massachusetts and that the sky did not fall in their state when marriage equality became the law of the land there," a rep for the event said. "He wants to impress upon everyone here in California that the sky will not fall here either.”

I'm personally not a big fan of Leno's humor (which I think has been backhanded to gays and lesbians on more than one occasion), but I do appreciate his involvement. After all, the guy's retiring soon from the Tonight Show and doesn't exactly need the publicity, so I would guess that his decision to participate is motivated at least in part by a desire to help and make up for his misstep.