Miss Manners on Correctly Addressing Gay Couples

I hope Miss Manners is ready to be declared a target for a American Family Association boycott. No doubt the loons at AFA will be foaming at the mouth over her recent column advising a writer on how to properly address gay and lesbian couples since she does recommend calling them faggots and telling them that they are going to Hell. But then somehow the AFA crowd doesn't strike me as very concerned about etiquette, good taste, honesty or social propriety in general. Boorishness, self-centeredness and rank dishonesty seem to be much more valued attributes given the dishonest garbage that AFA regularly disseminates, all the while patting themselves on the back for the false piety. Here are some highlights from The Advocate:

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Miss Manners is the expert on all facets of etiquette, and in her latest column she says that “updating old customs for new times happens to be her favorite part of this job.” She follows up by answering a reader’s question on how to address mail to a same-sex couple. The reader wonders if she should use the same formalities as when addressing an opposite-sex couple, then asks a question out of concern for the couple in question.

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Miss Manners responds: “Miss Manners begs you not to concern yourself with the unlikely possibility that postal clerks have any interest in the marital arrangements of the public they serve. She reminds you that marriage is a matter of public record, and that to presume that others' marriages are better kept secret is insulting.”

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Via the Columbus Dispatch comes this additional advice from Miss Manners:

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The plural of Mrs. is Mesdames, and the plural of Mr. is Messrs. So, a married female couple with the same surname would be Mesdames Jenna and Aurora Acorn, and a married male couple would be the Messrs. Jackson and Hal Thornton. Then there is the two-line form, each name with its own title. This is used when an address is shared by unrelated people or by family members, such as siblings, but also to address married couples if the wife has a title such as Dr., Senator or Judge, or, you should note, if her surname is different from her husband's.