March 17

David Jorgenssen and Jean-Pierre Montreaux, a San Francisco couple who met through Prêt-à-Porter Elite Matchingmaking, a service for gay professionals searching for life partners, researched matrimonial customs from all over the world, as they planned their own wedding. One custom, which came up in internet search after internet search, was that of jumping the broom. They liked the aesthetic of this tradition, and decided it would have a place in their wedding ceremony. Upon hearing of their idea, wedding planner D'arren Riggins, a mixed-race man originally from South Carolina, informed them that he felt uncomfortable about two European-American men integrating a custom so closely associated with African-American slave culture into their wedding, and urged them to forget it. He explained that, most closely associated with Africans enslaved in North America, the tradition of jumping the broom harked back to a time when slaves were not afforded the opportunity to enter into legal marriage and, instead, carried out the ritual of jumping from one side of the broom to the other, signifying a passing of one stage of life into another. He further explained that appropriation of a ritual which had such strong significance to the African-American community, and such strong ties to America's history of slave trade, for purely aesthetic reasons, was something many people - including himself - would find somewhat offensive. After discussing it, David and Jean-Pierre decided the only course of action would be to find another wedding planner - no small feat, with a wedding date just six months away. After all, this was supposed to be their day and, as gay men, they had fought long and hard for the right to marry - no one was going to tell them how they could or could not do it. 

In the note David sent, demanding their deposit back, he wrote, "We expected you, of all people - a gay, black man from the American south - to understand why getting married on our own terms is so important to us. We were clearly mistaken, and your true colors have come to light."