The Chapel of Gay Weddings
What God has joined together, let no one separate.
Photo by Eugénie Baccot
Ron and Jamie have always wanted to unite couples regardless of their sex. That’s why 16 years ago they decided to create the Gay Chapel of Las Vegas, the first gay chapel in Vegas. After having long celebrated unrecognised homosexual unions, the chapel has became more organised on October 9, 2014. On that day a federal district court ruled that Nevada’s ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional, therefore recognising gay marriages as legal. Has the legalization of gay unions given the business of marriage a second breath? After all the numbers of ceremonies in the state has fallen by 37% over the last 10 years (according to the Las Vegas Sun). In addition to “traditional” weddings, with or without Elvis, the chapel offers an assortment of ceremonies depending on how eccentric you want them to be.
A “classic” ceremony costs $375, whereas you’ll be spending $800 for a wedding officiated by Liberace (including glitter, a private concert and a souvenir photo to top it all off).
In an article featuring both text and photos, we offer you an immersion into the world of marriage in Vegas where 80,000 unions were celebrated in 2015 alone. We wish to view this phenomenon through the eyes of the Gay Chapel of Las Vegas, a family business where Ron and Jamie’s parents also work, to try and understand what has changed since 2014.
(2016)
