Awwww!
So. There was a Royal Wedding in my country yesterday. Our Crown Princess got married to her (now) Prince. I watched it with my parents, while we were having a nice day too... even if we did spend all of it in front of the TV. lol
Anyway. It was awesome. So beautiful and romantic and fabulous. And she was beautiful and he was handsome. :)
Now, a few other things that made me really happy about the whole thing:
* There were four officiants: one archbishop and three others. One of those was a female bishop.
* The royal guards in full uniform, saluting with their swords, on the stairs out of the cathedral: I could count at least 6 of them being female.
* There were four special security people running alongside the open carriage the newly-wed royalty rode in all through Stockholm: one of them was a woman.
* One of the two carriage-riders (that carriage is "driven" by two people riding the two horses on the left) was a woman.
* The shiny gilded boat that the newly-wed royal couple was rowed to the castle in: the sailor responsible for setting the rowing pace and that everyone else followed was a woman.
* Of course, countless of the police guarding the streets were women too.
* Several of the royal guards inside the castle (the so-called stompers) were women, and of the two that led the royal couple to the dining room, one was a woman.
* Our two openly gay ministers in the government came with their husbands/partners to the wedding dinner.
* At least one other openly gay couple was invited to the wedding dinner, and they arrived hand in hand looking awesomely cute.
* The last mentioned couple waltzing around with each other among a sea of royalties and world leaders was one of the last images the cameras showed from the wedding celebration. They were very handsome together.
These things makes me proud of my country and happy to actually live here, despite all my complaining about the weather and the underlying current of "don't think you are special or good at anything, mediocrity is what we should all strive for". It's not only that it's okay to be a woman and okay to be gay, but the fact that it's just... it's just the way it is. If it hadn't been for all the discussions I've seen here on LJ, if it hadn't been for all the articles and posts I've been linked to that points to the fact that these things are not okay in other places (like the US, in many ways), I would not even have noticed the things in my list above! They'd been just natural to me!
Anyway. It was awesome. So beautiful and romantic and fabulous. And she was beautiful and he was handsome. :)
Now, a few other things that made me really happy about the whole thing:
* There were four officiants: one archbishop and three others. One of those was a female bishop.
* The royal guards in full uniform, saluting with their swords, on the stairs out of the cathedral: I could count at least 6 of them being female.
* There were four special security people running alongside the open carriage the newly-wed royalty rode in all through Stockholm: one of them was a woman.
* One of the two carriage-riders (that carriage is "driven" by two people riding the two horses on the left) was a woman.
* The shiny gilded boat that the newly-wed royal couple was rowed to the castle in: the sailor responsible for setting the rowing pace and that everyone else followed was a woman.
* Of course, countless of the police guarding the streets were women too.
* Several of the royal guards inside the castle (the so-called stompers) were women, and of the two that led the royal couple to the dining room, one was a woman.
* Our two openly gay ministers in the government came with their husbands/partners to the wedding dinner.
* At least one other openly gay couple was invited to the wedding dinner, and they arrived hand in hand looking awesomely cute.
* The last mentioned couple waltzing around with each other among a sea of royalties and world leaders was one of the last images the cameras showed from the wedding celebration. They were very handsome together.
These things makes me proud of my country and happy to actually live here, despite all my complaining about the weather and the underlying current of "don't think you are special or good at anything, mediocrity is what we should all strive for". It's not only that it's okay to be a woman and okay to be gay, but the fact that it's just... it's just the way it is. If it hadn't been for all the discussions I've seen here on LJ, if it hadn't been for all the articles and posts I've been linked to that points to the fact that these things are not okay in other places (like the US, in many ways), I would not even have noticed the things in my list above! They'd been just natural to me!