Does the personal always have to be political? (And can’t it ever be private?)

So, I’m getting married. To this guy. There, I said it. I’ve been putting off writing about this for a while now (as somewhat explained by the hilarious someecard that Amanda sent to me above).
Being that most of us here blog about our personal lives quite a bit – from birth control and Spanx to body image and pets – it seems only natural that I would write about getting married. Especially given how political marriage is, especially right now.
But there was something nice about having this be private and not for public blogging, flickring, Facebooking or commenting. (After all, you don’t have to be a blogger to have your personal life on display!) And I was feeling all romantical, certainly not like debating and politicizing my relationship decisions. But shit, that’s what I kind of signed up for, right? Well…maybe.
I think that blogging about your life as a way to talk about politics can be a powerful tool; it’s one I’ve used often and find effective. It humanizes experiences that are so often talked about as statistics and develops a sense of community that can be powerful when called to action. But political and media strategies aside, I like that when I meet readers in person they feel as if they know me and other editors on the site (and if they’re a commenter, I feel as if I know them!). It’s a lovely feeling of connectedness and solidarity that’s unlike anything else, and I value it deeply.
But I also think that what we – as bloggers, writers or just folks with an online presence – put out into the public sphere should be up to us. I don’t want to feel that I must blog about getting married because it relates to the work that I do. I want to be able to have things that are just for me and not be judged poorly because of that. (Whether or not these are realistic wants remains to be seen!)
After thinking about this for a while, I realized that I don’t feel like I had to blog about getting married - I wanted to. I wanted to share some good news with a community that I love and am proud to have had a hand in creating.
I’m positive you’ll be hearing more from me on the marriage front: Like how to do it while shirking patriarchal tradition? Or why I decided to participate in an institution that still (for the most part) excludes same-sex couples. And I’d love to hear back from you as well – what your experiences are with marriage, not-being-married, etc. I think it could be a great conversation.
But for right now, I’m just going to be glad that I’ve finally shared this news with all of you, and start to think about subversive wedding favors…or something.