Forsaking All Others*

In this searing and darkly comic epilogue to the “Marriage After Equality” series, the narrator revisits the collapse of a sacred union—not just with a spouse, but with a Church that once claimed to bless and uphold their vows. What begins as a quiet act of observation unfolds into a deeper meditation on betrayal, silence, and the uneasy gap between institutional affirmation and moral accountability. Through biting humor and aching honesty, the piece interrogates what marriage equality has come to mean when the rituals remain intact but the covenantal substance is quietly abandoned. It’s a story of love, loss, and liturgical gaslighting—told from the pews where no one remembered the person who once sat beside the man in the robes.