As soon as I saw the pics from the Smiity Boyz wedding- I knew this had to be a Chitown related wedding! It had something to do with the style of the whole ceremony-or should I say the *swag* of the brothers getting married, and not to mention I recognized my locitician from back in the day in one of the pics:-) So anyway, come to find out Jamil is from Chicago- 41st & Indiana a la the Washington Park area. Anyway, there has been many negative comments surrounding the weddings fabolousity, but I never knew there was much more to this story- read below!
: Excerpt taking from prideindex.com
When it was time to plan their event, they shared their wedding ideas on Facebook and let their friends weigh in on which options they should choose. Once the wedding was over, it was only natural they would post the photos on Facebook for friends and family to view. To their horror and surprise, someone had downloaded their Facebook photo album without permission. An email chain containing more than a dozen of the couple’s wedding pictures with the subject “The WTD:) of the week!!!” started circulating across the country. The photos from the Sept. 13 ceremony had made their way to blogs like dlisted.com, and several dozen African-American sites like bossop.com, who had posted the photos without permission. They eventually found their way into the email accounts of staffers at Morehouse College and the social commentary and mockery began.
The photos began circulating between Sandra Bradley, an administrative assistant in the Morehouse College President’s office, and another coworker. The following is an excerpt from that email: “I can’t believe this wedding. It’s 2 men. They don’t smile in a lot in any of the pictures and they look like a few brothers I’ve seen in the streets looking STRAIGHT. Black women can’t get a break, either our men want another man, a white woman (or other nationality that’s light with straight hair); they are locked up in jail or have a “use to be” fatal disease. I’m beginning to believe Eve was a black woman and we Black women are paying for all the world’s sins through her actions (eating the apple).”
From there, the email chain made its way to Fulton County government employees, and then to the newspaper The Southern Voice, which made an inquiry to Morehouse College’s President Dr. Robert Michael Franklin. Dr. Franklin runs the all-male historically black college, said they “were investigating and would take appropriate and prompt action.” He said in a statement: “It is my sincere hope that the gay and lesbian community, and most specifically Michael Cole Smith and Jamil Smith Cole—whose wedding photographs became the subject of an unkind and intolerant email sent and forwarded by a Morehouse College employee—will accept my official apology on behalf of the College community.” Miss Bradley has since been fired.
Rather than becoming victims of the mockery and ridicule the couple took a stand and have recently spoken at Minnesota’s state capital in St. Paul in support of Marriage Equality on behalf of OUTFRONT Minnesota. OUTFRONT Minnesota’s mission is “to make our state a place where GLBT Minnesotans have the freedom, power, and confidence to make the best choices for their own lives.”
“I was truly pissed at first for the simple fact that, I wanted this, our wedding, to be something special for us. Someone tried to take that from us and twist it and turn it into something negative, a gay bashing. But in the end even the taunts have made us stronger as a couple,” says Jamil. “Nothing can break us, as long as we stay strong as one. What the devil meant for evil is going to be used for good, more and more African American gays and lesbians are starting to think about love and commitment and the possibility of marriage. Our future is bright as long as we stay true to our love, the vows we shared that day and the respect and admiration that we share for each other nothing is impossible,” Michael said.
Here's the wedding vids:
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