Gays Before “Days”: A Look Back Down The Aisle At Gay Weddings On Television

With all the hoopla surrounding the wedding of Will Horton and Sonny Kiriakis (Guy Wilson and Freddie Smith, above) on Days Of Our Lives this week, you’d think that it was the first time gays had gotten married on TV (nope, just daytime TV). The whole thing has made us a bit nostalgic for the gay weddings we’ve seen on television in the past, though we’d never admit to wanting to be married ourselves. No, of course not.

So you all take a trip down memory lane while we figure out what suit we’d like to be buried alone in if we’re not hitched by 40.

So, the gays of The New Normal ended up getting married. In the polarizing sitcom Andrew Rannells and Justin Bartha, or what’s-his-name as we call him, finally got married, the surrogate delivered the baby, and they were able to live their New Normal far away from the prying eyes of television viewers. We really like looking at Andrew Rannells though. We like to think that he ditched the baby, the dorky husband and that Crate & Barrel ad masquerading as an L.A. mansion and decided to knock a few years off his age to move to Brooklyn to be closer to Lena Dunham.

Over on Queer As Folk, adorkable Michael and HIV+ dreamboat Ben had been through it all by the time they tied the knot. Apparently fostering a teenage hustler and then going on the lam when his mother tried to return for him really brings a couple together. The only thing marring the scene is the aforementioned teenage hustler (annoying Hunter was truly the Cousin Oliver of the show) as well as Hal Sparks’ hilariously earnest closeup and line reading at :24. Still, it gave hope to an entire generation of young gays that one day we could find a hunky PHD to call our very own.

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We can’t write about Queer As Folk without bringing to mind its similarly mono-racially cast gay soap opera brother Noah’s Arc. Noah and Wade’s love story was so epic it required an entire movie surrounding it, thus Noah’s Arc: Jumping The Broom was released back in 2008. While technically it’s not a gay wedding on a TV show, it is definitely a gay wedding that came from a TV show, and some of the sitcom style elements of the movie feel like a TV show. Regardless, Jumping The Broom can be credited with adding a splash of color to the televised movement for gay marriage. Thanks to Jumping The Broom, you too can participate in the fantasy that some day a piece of trade will go gay for you and end up putting a ring on it.

Of course, no “Gay Weddings On Television” list would be complete without the granddaddy of them all, the gay marriage super-ceremony officiated by a glass-closeted actress and featuring the mass wedding of dozens of gay couples. Yes, we’re all tired of Macklemore, but you’ve gotta admit this was pretty awesome. The Days wedding is groundbreaking in the world of daytime television, but this moment was one for the history books. Plus, it was pretty amazing to see so many different same-sex couples of various ages, races and genders tying the knot. Of course, we were waiting for the Queen to bring her boo and hop in on the festivities, but we’ll probably be waiting for a while, even if we are “her people.”