It's hard to know what to say to a man who has just married himself. Congratulations on your nuptial (singular)? You make a beautiful bride ... and groom? Probably the safest thing is to ask if he is pleased with his presents. "Oh yes," gushes Kevin Nadal, who makes up both halves of the happy couple. "I got a DVD recorder, a nose-hair trimmer, kitchenware, Martini glasses, and a back massager," he rattles off, like a giddy child on Christmas morning. "Oh, and I registered for male pornographic magazines, and got those too. I did well."

Porn as a wedding gift might not quite be in keeping with convention, but that was nothing compared with the "wedding" that took place last Saturday in front of 125 guests in New York. It was there that Nadal, 27, a Filipino-American gay performance artist and PhD student in counselling psychology, took his vows - "I, Kevin Nadal, take me, Kevin Nadal, to have and hold, in sickness and health" - threw a bouquet, then partied into the wee hours. "Everybody said it was the best wedding they'd been to," he says proudly. "Even if some people initially didn't understand what I was trying to do, they came round in the end."

What he was trying to do, he says, was stage an event that would celebrate the single life while highlighting the discrimination against singletons. "I've attended at least a dozen weddings, and I have bought tons of gifts for those couples. And don't get me wrong, I'm happy to do it. But I started thinking: we always celebrate married life, why not single life?

"Single people are marginalised in our culture. People think you don't have the commitment to be in a relationship or you're too picky. Women have it tough. Heterosexual men, they get a free pass and are congratulated for being a 'player'. But for gay men and single women, there's a stigma because we don't have a partner."

So, clad in a white suit and red shirt, Nadal took centre stage, surrounded by a bridal party of 32 in the loft that served as Samantha's apartment in Sex and the City. The only absentees were his parents. "They are traditional Filipino and would not have understood. I told them I was having a birthday party." Like many bride/grooms, Nadal had a serious case of nerves before on the big day. "I wasn't worried I was making a mistake, or if this was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with," he laughs. He was more concerned about his white suit and whether he would go home with anyone at the end of the night.

First Nadal made a speech about what being single means to him. "I told them it means taking your sick ass down to the pharmacy at 3am because nobody is going for you, or going on a first date hoping this time it will work, then going home knowing it's not going to happen.

"I felt very empowered saying it," he says. "And I felt by the end of the night that people understood the wedding wasn't just an excuse for a [£3,200] party, but a personal statement. I know it got them thinking."

Nadal's only counterpart to date is Jennifer Hoes, who married herself last year in the Dutch city of Haarlem. The 30-year-old, who vowed to love and honour herself, told papers: "We live in a 'me' society. Hence it is logical that one promises to be faithful to oneself."

There is only one problem with Nadal's declaration of independence: while he has no interest in getting married in the conventional sense, one day he might meet Mr Right. Gay marriage could be a reality again in the US. But Nadal doesn't seem concerned. "I'll just be like everyone else when I meet the right person. I'll have a second wedding. A lot of people go down the aisle more than once. J-Lo gets married all the time."