Today’s Gay Etiquette Question

From Steven Petrow’s Civil Behavior column in the New York Times comes this question:

Dear Civil Behavior: My partner and I are in our early 30s and we’re planning to formally commit our lives to each other. We’re struggling with our guest list, though. We both have a number of family members — in my case, my parents and seven older siblings — who don’t support our relationship. They’re all highly educated, reasonably intelligent people but only one of my sisters-in-law is comfortable allowing us around her children. No one is vitriolic about it, but they feel responsible to shelter their children (who range from newborn to 18) from the idea that two men can love each other. How can I strike a balance between issuing invitations to all who deserve to know about the occasion (my parents did raise me to be polite, after all), while making it clear that we only want people to attend the ceremony if they will pledge to support our relationship, and actually celebrate the occasion?

Give us your answer then hit the link for Petrow’s response.