News report: “Vegavahini Subramaniam and Vaijayanthimala Nagarajan, who immigrated from southern India, are among the the six same-sex couples who are suing the state of Washington for denying them marriage licences.”

Because heterosexuality is as much of a choice as homosexuality and lesbianism, but we do not discriminate against people who prefer the opposite gender to their own, same sex marriages should exist.

Because of the old friend of mine who answered my question about whether he was happy with: “Am I happy? I’m very happy — in fact, I’m gay. For the first time in my life, I’m not trying to work up a passion for women I don’t feel, I’m in love with someone who loves me back, yes, I’m happy.” And because some day I do want to see him settle down with a nice boy, and because I hope to dance at his wedding, I believe that same sex marriages are overdue.

Because of the decent man who looked puzzled when we were discussing gay and lesbian rights, then asked: “But let them do whatever they want to in private: why do they have to be open about it?” And because those of my friends who are lesbian have spent hours telling me how they wish they didn’t have to hide, and those of my friends who are gay have said they’d really like to be able to celebrate their love in public, as “the rest of us” have a right to do, same sex marriages are necessary.

Because if you look closely at the definition of “marriage” you’ll see it splits into two distinct parts. One celebrates “the institution whereby a man and a woman are joined in a special kind of social and legal dependence”, and that’s not what my husband and I signed up for, and the other celebrates “an intimate or close union, as in ‘the marriage of true minds”’, and that is what the champagne was about. And because I don’t believe I’d want to exclude other people in love from knowing what true marriage is about on the grounds that they happen to be in love with people from the “wrong gender” — which is their own gender, so it can’t be all that wrong — I think same sex marriages are a good idea.

Because there was a time when black and white marriages were considered an affront to civilisation, and there was a time when Hindu-Muslim marriages were almost unthinkable, and because we can now admit we were wrong, maybe it’s time to give same sex marriages a chance.

Because if the only kind of marriage we’re willing to sanction is marriage for the sake of propagating the human race or as a way to ratify a man’s rights over the property that is a woman’s body, same sex marriage is a wake-up call telling us that there are other ways of looking at the institution.

Because as any grandmother who’s helped rear grandchildren and every uncle who’s told bedtime stories to his nieces and nephews knows, it doesn’t take two people of opposite sexes to bring up children. It just takes two caring people, period, and same sex marriage can help make that legal.

Because even if some of us can’t imagine celebrating an “unnatural” wedding, we hope your grandchildren will be more broadminded, same sex marriage is likely to be unremarkable in another two generations. And because, to the silly question, what do you call a gay wedding, the only possible answer is, a happy occasion.

Same sex marriages can be just as much fun as monsoon weddings. To Vega and Mala, good luck.