Married At First Sight Gay Contestant Criticised For Appearing On Show
Image: Married at First Sight on Channel 9. Photo: Facebook.
A GAY man who will appear on the upcoming Australian reality TV show Married at First Sight has said he has copped a lot of criticism from within the LGBTI community for appearing on the show while same-sex marriage is not legal in Australia.
Andy, 40, appeared on the Today show this morning and told hosts Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson that “you were damned if you do, damned if you don’t”.
“There’s been a lot of backlash from series one and two for not having a same sex couple and now that there is one in series three nobody’s happy about that as well,” he said.
Married at First Sight is a show where two people who have never met are married after being matched by psychologists and have their journey as a new couple followed by the shows. Andy’s ceremony had to be filmed in New Zealand where same-sex marriage is legal.
“For me, the marriage bit wasn’t important… but it’s really an experiment to pull two people together and I’m really lucky to have been chosen. To have three or four experts match me to the guy that I’m going to spent the rest of my life with and I truly want,” the UK born Andy said on the show.
“You know I missed my mum, if you can’t miss your mum on your wedding day when can you… that was the saddest moment for me.”
In the segment viewers are introduced to Andy via some grabs from the show, where he explains he moved to Sydney five years ago and loves the city because it is very accepting, despite the fact marriage equality is not legal.
“Love is never wrong, how dare a religion or a government tell me that the purest of emotions which is love, wrong?” he said in the clip.
Social media was divided about featuring a same-sex couple on a show about marriage with much of the criticism coming from LGBTI people.
“Hope no one watches this stupid show. How pathetic. If you’re going to display gay marriage as ‘entertainment’ at least give it the dignity of being legalised. Same sex couples don’t ruin the ‘sanctity of marriage’ – realty (sic) TV does,” said one Facebook comment.
“So you can marry a complete stranger but you could be with someone you love for over 7 years and want to get married but you can’t because your the same gender, nice ????,” said a woman on Facebook.
“What an absolute joke. This county (sic) won’t give everyone the same rights but it’s ok to exploit the feelings of a same sex couple for ratings? It’s beyond cruel to tease a couple with a taste of something that at this stage won’t ever be within their reach,” said another Facebook user.
“So glad that a reality television show is confronting the issue of same sex marriage. The issue has been shunned by television and Governments for far to (sic) long. In the free land of Australia I still can’t believe, that in the 21st century we don’t have equality, let alone credible progress towards equality for all members of the community,” said one person on Facebook.
“Can’t wait!! Finally some form of same sex relationship on TV! We need to get with the times and acknowledge this in our society! Small steps!” said a Facebook user.
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This is why I hardly watch TV anymore. We are just treated like a joke or a polititical plaything for TV executives entertaiment catering for “bogans on newstart” or rubbish TV to be fucking frank. I am sorry if I and millions of other LGBTI people want to be equal and want 100 percent equality – because as a 30 year old gay man working for the NSW government and like most people we gay men fucking pay taxes too and deserve the right to choose to get married! No different really, say if a woman chooses the right to work or have an abortion!
For fuck sake it is 2016, wake up Australia!