Straight Couples "Unmarry" in NYC

Dressed in his trademark televangelist drag and exhorting the crowd to a “same-sex elujah,” New York activist Reverend Billy Talen led straight couples in a mass “unwedding” on Valentine's Day in solidarity with gay couples denied marriage rights.

The Village Voice offers a detailed report of the scene with nearly 50 couples in Central Park on Sunday.

“The happy twosomes — some married, some in long-term relationships — arranged themselves before a floral trellis,” according to the Runnin' Scared blog from the Voice. “The theatrical activist and former mayoral candidate, who typically preaches an anti-consumerist gospel, then stepped forward to take a rather slushy pulpit, officiating the Valentine's Day mass ‘unwedding.’”

The Reverend Billy, as he is known around the city, leads a band of activists called the Church of Life After Shopping, best recognized for its anticonsumerist message.

This year, the group planned its action in response to recent marriage equality defeats in the New York and New Jersey state senates, and the impending court decision on Prop. 8 in California.