Despite the promise lesbian commitment rituals hold for facilitating per-sonal growth, affirmation, and even transformation, I believe it is important toconsider their limitations.

through their veneration of Biblical texts in the holy union cere-mony.

I would argue that the ritual succeeded increating feelings of solidarity, belonging, and communitas for LGBT and/orblack guests, particularly those who had been invited to the shower, becausethey were defined as ritual “insiders.” However, its effect was probably notequally constitutive of communitas for all guests, and may have actually madethose defined as ritual outsiders feel disconnected and left out.

communitas

For this lesbian couple, jumping the broom served as both an assertionof their racial identities and an allusion to the subversive nature of their ownself-marrying rite. It also heightened bonds of communitas for the couple’ssupporters by drawing symbolic boundaries between themselves and thosewho denied their ancestors and themselves the right to marry.

factitiv

Factitive order.Inadditiontosymbolizingorder,ritualcreatesthescaffold-ingthatenablesorganizationtoappear(Driver,1991). Thisconstitutiveaspectof ritualiswhatRappaport(

an organize the progression of same-sex re-lationships and reduce the anxiety that may inhere in the act of committingoneself to a life partnership.

Following Blumer (1969), Iemployed a symbolic interactionist perspectivein my fieldwork-I immersed myself in participants’ social reality and analyzedthe processes, communications, and practices in which they engaged.

Both members of the united couple were activeleaders in the congregation, and one was the congregation’s pastor.

Foundedin1997,thechurch wasaself-describedecumenicalChristiancongregationthatembracedonetriuneGod composedofthree“persons”—God,theParent-Creator;JesusChrist,SonofGod;andtheHolySpirit,Sustainer.

Theshowerandholyunionceremoniesanalyzedforthispaperweredrawnfromalargerethnographyofa65-memberLGBT-affirmingChristiancongrega-tionintheSouthconducted between August1998andSeptember2001.

questions.First,whywasaholyunionceremonyimportanttothiscou-ple,evenwhentheygainednotangiblesocialprivilegesorlegalrightsasare-sult?Second,whatritualsandsymbolsdidtheychoosetoincorporate,andhowdidthosewhoattendedexperiencetheseritualisticelements?Third,whatdotheir ritualpractices and narrativessuggestabouttheintersectionsofrace,sexuality,andreligiousritual?Andfinally, didthe ritualstheyemployedintheirholyunion challenge, reconstruct,orreproducesocialconventions?