On the sunny afternoon of September 20, at the Green House on Bayview Walk, the Reverend Susan Campanaro, ordained in the Universal Life Church and also known as Lavinia Draper, legally married Ken Woodhouse and Mike Turci, already a couple for 15 years, in the eyes of New York State, with the Great South Bay as a backdrop, before a crowd of family, friends, colleagues, and almost everyone who is anyone in Cherry Grove. The vows, read by Susan, included quotations from Marilyn Monroe and William Shakespeare. The themes of the wedding party were country hoedown and potluck.
Celebrities Porsche and DJ Chuck, Hedda Lettuce, Robin Byrd, and Gilbert Baker, creator of the rainbow flag, were among those present. There, too, were Dale and Steve, Bobby Scherffius and Victor Alfieri, Linda Dickerman and Barbara Hirsch, and Joe Saporito and this writer, all of whom married in the Grove three years ago, when same-sex marriage first became legal in the state; other couples Troy Files and Brian Clark, Roland Michely and Joe Anania, and David Auxier and Carlos Loyola, who married a bit later; CJ Mingolelli and Marco Herrera, for whom Ken and Mike work at Douglas Elliman; Gerri MacWhinnie, daughter of the Grove’s late longtime Postmaster/mistress Jeanne Skinner; and thespians Ruth and Susan Freedner, Bella, Demi-Tasse, Thom “Panzi” Hansen, and Phil “Philomena” Stoehr and spouse Michael Abdis.