Gay rights groups are outraged that two straight men in New Zealand have gotten married as part of a radio station competition.
On Friday, childhood friends Travis McIntosh, a 23-year-old engineering student, and Matt McCormick, a 24-year-old teacher, tied the knot in a wedding ceremony at Eden Park stadium, in Auckland.
The two men got hitched to win an all expenses paid trip to the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England as part of the ‘Love You Man’ competition organised by The Edge youth radio station.
The couple, who beat out 200 other straight male couples who entered, wore tuxedos, exchanged wedding vows in front of friends and family, and even cut a wedding cake to legally become husband and husband.
While the radio station and McIntosh and McCormick see it all as good fun, LGBT activists say that the stunt is offensive to gay and lesbian couples who fought for decades to win the right to marry.
Speaking to the Otago Daily Times, LegaliseLove Aotearoa Wellington Co-chairman Joseph Habgood commented that, “The point of this competition is that men marrying each other is still something they think is worth having a laugh at…”
Otago University Students’ Association Queer Support Co-ordinator Neill Ballantyne added that, “Something like this trivialises what we fought for.”
New Zealand became the 13th country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage in April last year.
In Australia, where same-sex marriage is yet to be legalised, Alex Greenwich, independent MP for Sydney and a marriage equality campaigner, told the Sydney Morning Herald: “Gay and lesbian people are fighting for the right to marry in Australia and… here are two straight guys making a joke of that, and that’s deeply concerning.”
McCormick responded to the Otago Daily Times on Thursday that, “We are not here to insult anyone. We are here to do our own thing and travel our own path.”
McIntosh chimed in that, “It’s just seeing how far two good mates would go to win a trip to the Rugby World Cup.”
The men said that’d probably stay married for two years before getting the marriage annulled.
One Response
Gay men fought for the right of gay men to marry. Straight men already had the right to marry. Protesting this is idiotic.