I couldn't help but laugh at the outrage over the "making a mockery of their institution". "lool"


Gay Rights Groups Outraged As Straight Friends Marry for Rugby Tickets

September 11, 2014

Two men are going to take advantage of New Zealand's liberal same-sex marriage laws tomorrow when they tie the knot, but gay rights campaigners in the Commonwealth nation have called it an "insult", as both partners in the union are straight best friends.

Rugby-mad engineer Travis McIntosh, 23, and teacher Matt McCormick, 24, have known each other nearly twenty years. They entered a "bromance" competition run by a local NZ radio station last month hoping to win an all expenses-paid trip to the UK for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Edge FM launched the "Love You, Man" campaign back in August as part of the build-up to the competition, in which two straight best friends would be chosen to enjoy the trip, on the condition they would go as a legally married couple.

Despite the apparently innocent enjoyment afforded by the competition, local gay rights groups are "horrified" by the move, according to the New Zealand Herald. A "queer support" coordinator from Otago University criticised the union, saying it was an "insult", and that it "trivialises what we fought for".

The co-chairman of a local group called LegaliseLove ironically echoed the words of groups who originally opposed same-sex marriage when he said the competition "attacked the legitimacy of gay marriage". Despite that, he took a more philosophical view on the long term implications, saying: "Maybe on the day that statistics around mental health for LGBTI (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Intersex) people are better, when high schools are safe places for LGBTI youth, we can look back on all this and laugh".

Edge Radio has previous form in using marriage as a pretext for its shows and promotional stunts. According to New Zealand entertainment magazine Media Works: "The Edge has built a reputation on creating outrageous weddings that create successful marriages. It started 13 years ago when they married two complete strangers, Paula Stockwell and Zane Nicholl.

"Since then they’ve married two more sets of strangers, eloped three couples to Las Vegas, married a couple without clothes in Nudie Nuptials, left the groom to do all the work in Man Made Wedding and last year celebrated same sex marriage by marrying two gay couples".

Fortunately for the couple, under New Zealand law couples no longer have to physically consummate marriage for it to be legal, so they can remain happily friends-without-benefits despite their new legal status.




Why Travis McIntosh And Matt McCormick’s Wedding Angers Gay Groups

September 12, 2014

TRAVIS McIntosh and Matt McCormick will get married tomorrow yet the matrimonial union has horrified gay rights groups.

Heterosexual best mates McIntosh and McCormick, who have known each other since the age of six, are getting married as winners of a competition run by The Edge radio station in New Zealand.

After more than 200 entries, McIntosh, a 23-year-old engineering student at Otago University, and McCormick, a 24-year-old teacher at Musselburgh School in Dunedin, were chosen from three bromance couples to win an all-expenses paid trip to the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England.

The catch was that the buddies had to get married — a same-sex wedding — and they will do that tomorrow in front of 60 family and friends at New Zealand’s home of rugby, Eden Park, in Auckland.

A celebrant will make the union legally binding, the marriage will be streamed live on the radio station.

“We are not here to insult anyone. We are here to do our own thing and travel our own path,” McCormick told the Otago Daily Times.

McIntosh said the wedding was not mocking the institution of marriage.

“It’s just seeing how far two good mates would go to win a trip to the Rugby World Cup.

“We picked up our wedding certificate and the nerves are starting to really hit home.”

McIntosh said they were still to decide if they would a hyphenated surname but thought their marriage would last at least two years.

“Matt and Travis, or Mattress as I have affectionately named them, are great guys. They are excited about next year’s trip to London but are just as pumped about their big day. It’s not going to be your traditional wedding. In fact, this may be the first wedding in history where the newlyweds will try to crack onto the guests,” said Dom Harvey from The Edge Breakfast Show.

Same-sex marriage became legal in New Zealand in August last year, yet gay groups have condemned the marriage of McIntosh and McCormick.

Otago University Students’ Association Queer Support co-ordinator Neill Ballantyne told the Otago Daily Times that the wedding was an “insult” as marriage equality was a “hard fought” battle for gay people.

“Something like this trivialises what we fought for,” he said.

The competition promoted the marriage of two men as something negative, “as something outrageous that you’d never consider”, Ballantyne said.

LegaliseLove Aotearoa Wellington co-chairman Joseph Habgood told the Otago Daily Times that the competition attacked the legitimacy of same-sex marriages.

“The point of this competition is that men marrying each other is still something they think is worth having a laugh at ...

“Maybe on the day that statistics around mental health for LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) people are better, when high schools are safe places for LGBTI youth, we can look back on all this and laugh.

“But competitions like this don’t bring that day any closer.”

The Edge has a reputation for outrageous weddings. They married two complete strangers, Paula Stockwell and Zane Nicholl, 13 years ago.

Subsequently The Edge has married two more sets of strangers, eloped three couples to Las Vegas, married a couple without clothes in Nudie Nuptials, left the groom to do all the work in Man Made Wedding and last year celebrated same sex marriage by marrying two gay couples.