The protest of Gov. Charlie Crist’s (R-Fla.) wedding to glitzy just-divorced Halloween costume mogul Carole Rome went off as planned Friday. The candlelight vigil organized by Impact Florida went largely ignored in the fawning press reports on the nearly royal wedding, in which the bride wore virginal white and declared that although this would be a total of three marriages between the two of them, it’s the only one that counts. Guess that makes her two daughters whose home was recently wrecked illegitimate.

Is this what they call, “protecting marriage?”

“This is my one and only wedding in my view,” Rome said in a telephone interview. The 39-year-old New York socialite’s divorce became final earlier this year.*

43 percent of heterosexual first marriages end in separation or divorce within 15 years

The Crist-Rome wedding will go down as Florida’s highest-profile example of the biggest change in marriage mores since the mother of manners herself, Emily Post, advised second-time brides that gray was an example of appropriate dress.

That was 1922. Remarrying brides, or “encore brides,” as they’re now called, have been able to wear white and receive the blessing of society’s taste makers since the mid 1990s. They may get married in Christian churches if they are Jewish, as Rome is. They may also have big receptions and, even, feature the same attendants from their first weddings [as Rome also is]…

“Customs change, and, as long as they don’t offend people, that’s OK,” said Peggy Post, Emily’s great granddaughter-in-law, who updates the Post wedding etiquette volumes and lives in Southwest Florida…

The reason why Rome will be able to carry off a white second-wedding is that manners are defined based on how the majority of people feel about them. They are things that can be lobbied for, and the lobby is growing.

Of the 2.4 million marriages performed annually in the U.S., nearly half are remarriages, according to the census. The National Center for Health Statistics found that 43 percent of first marriages end in separation or divorce within 15 years.

And so, the white dress first worn by England’s Queen Victoria and interpreted by all as a sign of chastity, is now considered a sign of joy.

That’s joy until next time, anyway. So the question we and the protesters would like answered is, if mores change, and Jews can be married in Christian churches, and white symbolizes whatever we want it to, and half of heterosexual marriages end in divorce, and half of those heterosexual marriages are the second, third, fourth, etc. for the partners, then tell us again why can’t gay people get married too?

* Nine whole months ago, to be exact