Ajay wins $60k for gay campaign
The NOH8 campaign will receive $60,000 from former Biggest Loser host Ajay Rochester after she won Channel Nine’s reality weight loss program Excess Baggage.
Rochester and her training partner Matthew Palmer won last month, just beating Australian media personality Darren Lyons, former AFL player Robert Dipierdomenico and US rapper Kevin Federline.
Controversy surrounded the show after it flopped in the ratings and was moved to the Nine network’s other digital channel, GO!.
The pair won $100,000 with Rochester’s share going straight to the US-based charity.
In a personal blog, Rochester explained why she chose the NOH8 campaign.
“I have many gay friends … and it made even more sense to support something as simple and beautiful as having the right to marry whoever it is you love and to be not hated, vilified or discriminated against simply because you choose to be yourself!” she wrote.
“I hope the money helps and I am proud to be the one to present it to you.”
The NOH8 campaign began as a photographic protest against California’s 2008 same-sex marriage ban, Proposition 8. The protest has since grown into a global campaign for gay rights with support from celebrities including Lady Gaga, Cher and actor Jane Lynch.
More than 20,000 people have participated in NOH8’s photographic campaign.
INFO: Photo courtesy of Adam Bouska/NOH8
