I’ve written about him before, and now he’s written something about Jake and me. From today’s Salt Lake Tribune:

Last Friday was one of the best days of my life. My second son, Jake, was married, and I was there. Five of my six children are now married. Each wedding day has been wonderful for me—one in the Salt Lake Temple in 1993, one in the Bountiful Temple in 2001, one in the First Presbyterian Church in 2006, and another in the Salt Lake Temple in 2007. But Jake’s wedding last week, at an Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills, stands out. For a long time, I wasn’t sure Jake would ever marry. You see, Jake is gay, and though he and Dave have been together for seven years, here in the land of the free, gay people have only recently been afforded the right to formalize their love and commitment in marriage.

On Friday night, Jake said, “I didn’t think I’d ever be happy, and now I am.” Can a father ask for more? Maybe so, but not this week.

Michael G. Nelson
Murray, Utah

It made my morning. And then I read this piece of shit. But still: hurrah hurrah hurrah. (And now we see if it sets Jake’s dad on the road to excommunication.)

David Schmader—former weed columnist and Stranger associate editor—is the author of the solo plays Straight and Letter to Axl, which he’s performed in Seattle and across the US. His latest...

59 replies on “My New Father-in-Law”

  1. Congratulations Dave, count me among the teary eyed. This was a beautiful thing to post, here’s to an even happier life for you!

  3. Yeah, yeah and yeah David and Jake!

    All my wishes for happiness in your shared future.

    With such a cool FIL you are very lucky indeed.

    Photos, please……

  5. Congratulations on all your blessings and thanks for the lovely post.

    And, really, who cares about Michael Weiner? Nothing he could say could upset me. These people are beyond hate and past satire and in a realm of just babbling idiots preaching to a choir of babbling idiots. Work against them as you would any mindless evil, but don’t let them affect you.

  6. Congrats, Dave. My in-laws were wonderful too. My other half died before we had a chance to get legally married anywhere at all, but they treated me like their own and I still talk to mom (dad died of brain cancer a couple of years ago, but he also was good to me)

  7. Oh @5, you kill me! I live in Salt Lake and grew up Mormon. Most of my family is still Mormon. WHERE did you get the idea that alcohol drinking was now a personal choice? That is HI-larious.

    And the stuff about building food supplies for hard times? It’s old pulpit stuff about being prepared for the Last Days. Seriously.

    AND I have a friend who was excommunicated last fall for being gay and out. So that’s that.

    Thanks for the laugh.

    Oh yeah: David, congrats a million times. I read your FIL’s letter aloud to my husband the other day and we were both so happy for his thoughts. It gives one hope.

  8. As another Salt Laker born a Mormon, I can attest with Hrothgar that alcohol is still forbidden among The Brethren.

    That letter was really touching. The Mormon Church is doing everything it can to abolish marriage equality in California. We can only hope that their efforts fail miserably.

  9. I am SO glad it was I who excommunicated the church so many years ago! I would NEVER want to be involved with an organization (especially a so-called religious one) who so blatantly speaks from both sides of its mouth. Congratulations, David. May you and Jake enjoy many, many years of equality with the rest of humanity.

Comments are closed.