That groom who was outed as bisexual on his wedding day earlier this week is speaking out about the experience.
Quick backstory: Fans of Married at First Sight Australia were rightfully disgusted and dismayed this week after one of the show’s stars, Liam Cooper, was viciously outed in front of his entire wedding party.
Liam Cooper was asked in front of everyone if he was bisexual. When he answered in the affirmative, he was met with gasps, giggles, and whispers among wedding guests. His bride, Georgia, was also shocked.
“I can’t believe that that just happened in front of everyone,” he said afterwards.
Now, the 29-year-old is speaking out about what happened. In an interview with Today Extra, Cooper expressed disappointment at how it all went down.
“Now looking back at it, I wish I would’ve been able to talk to Georgia, just me and her, instead of having the whole group to come out that way,” he said.
“I’m a big believer in we shouldn’t have to have labels. Heterosexual people don’t have to come out, so why does anyone from the LGBTQI community have to come out?”
Are you joking #MAFS ? It’s 2021. I know these people sign up for this show (and obviously I continue to watch it) but to put someone in a position where their sexuality is basically laughed at is NOT okay. #mafsau
— Hayley Willis (@Hayley__Willis) March 15, 2021
In a follow-up interview with 9Entertainment, Cooper said being bisexual doesn’t define him, and he resents having to come out over and over and over again.
“I hate labels,” he said. “I even hate having to say I’m bisexual. We shouldn’t live in a world where we have to put labels on each other.”
Coming out, the reality star added, shouldn’t have to be such a big deal. In fact, he would prefer if it people treated as a non-issue rather than a grand proclamation about one’s identity.
“Even with gay, lesbian, transgender, people just need to be like, ‘Oh yeah, cool, that’s great’… Move on. There shouldn’t have to be a big uproar.”
Scroll down for pics from Liam’s Instagram page…
Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.
Cam
He said
“”“I’m a big believer in we shouldn’t have to have labels. Heterosexual people don’t have to come out, so why does anyone from the LGBTQI community have to come out?”””
_______________________________________________________
Easy, because if we don’t come out everybody assumes everybody else is heterosexual. And our rights are being attacked because of who we are. Coming out to those around us shows that that they personally know somebody LGBTQ and means they are less likely to vote for politicians who want to harm us.
Creamsicle
Yyyup. I agree that it was super shitty for the show to out him the way they did. Outing can endanger people’s lives and livelihoods, on top of taking control away from them and forcing them into one of their deepest fears.
But he’s wrong. Coming out is still an important political act. Gay rights activism is a lot more successful at appealing to the mainstream than it was even 10 years ago, but there are a lot of ignorant bigots who still haven’t been forced to accept that they already know and love a gay person.
humble charlie
A bisexual man will make the perfect husband for a woman. In most cases he’ll stay in reasonable shape and smell nice. He’ll know how she feels about things. He won’t fart and pull the covers over her head. He won’t get all bent out of shape if she fornicates with some other guy. He’ll enjoy (just as much as a heterosexual man) it, if she fornicates with another woman. He can carry on a conversation other than grunts. It’s a win-win situation.
Donston
You’re basically using “queer stereotypes”, which is just lame. There are many dudes who aren’t entirely hetero who don’t at all reflect those things you mentioned. In fact, most dudes I’ve mom known that are non hetero but non homo don’t really reflect that stuff. Furthermore, a hetero partnership makes sense if the person isn’t merely non hetero or non homo, but truly into their opposite cis gender. There has to be some genuine romantic, emotional investment and relationship contentment. If he partners up with a female mostly for sex, ego, sociology, internalized phobias and/or family, problems can quickly emerge. And if he really has persistent same-sex sexual desires, romantic passions, affections, emotional investment, desire to get attention and affirmation from his sex then things can also get really tricky. That would depend on what type of relationship the female wants. It also helps if he’s not really struggling with mental health issues, ego issues, tons of fluidity or paraphiliacs.
Like everything, it’s a case-by-case, person-by-person thing. We need to stop summing people up in such basic ass ways.
cgrapids
He won’t get bent out of shape if she cheats? Really? Speak for YOURSELF. What on earth is going on in our society if you *automatically assume* that a LGBTQIA person would be “cool” with cheating?
humble charlie
Donston, you can always find exceptions and one man cannot encompass every variation of what it accepted in the gay world. But thank you for taking the time to respond to my slightly humorous post. You have given me much to think about.
cgrapids, I am speaking for myself. A partner/spouse is an adult, and, no matter what rules you set down for your partner/spouse, they are going to do what they want to do, so why get all bent out of shape over it. After all after a few years, one gets tired of having sex with the same person. That’s just the way it is.
Donston
What I said is not the exception. It’s almost the norm. People need to stop taking stereotypes or what they see on social media or in entertainment and applying them to everyone. Even inherently bisexual dudes who fit those stereotypes have their own individual dimensions and struggles.
If you get to know a ton of people and actuality do your research, you’d see just how varied people are. So, your blanket comments just come off naive, misinformed and almost anti-gay and homophobic.
Donston
The whole “coming out” and “labels” stuff is a tricky topic. A lot of people have some type of “pride” in their identities. While many people face internal and external struggles that keep them from being themselves. And prejudice and hetero pressures and expectations are still very widespread. So, you can’t be entirely dismissive towards identities and “coming out”. On the other hand, we shouldn’t be forcing each other to be “out”. We shouldn’t be using “coming out” or sex to embarrass or shame people. We shouldn’t be placing as much weight and importance on these “labels” as we do. We shouldn’t be using other people’s behaviors or identities to forge our own fantasies or agendas. And we shouldn’t be defining ourselves purely by sex behaviors and attractions. Sexuality, fluidity, sense of self, emotions, love, commitment, motivations, struggles, and genera psyches are all individual things, and we are all more than just these identities. That is something people (including many “proud lgbtq” people) need to learn to understand and respect.
I feel bad that he was “outed” on TV and that the producers likely set it up to create some last minute drama. But he was on a TV show trying to get married to someone he barely knows. The whole concept is icky, sensationalistic and predatory. When you play with that type of stuff you can’t help but expect to be burned. I also don’t know how sincere his statement is considering it’s coming after that episode aired, its as bland and politically as those kind of statements can get. I do wish him and his partner good luck.
Heywood Jablowme
Since he’s 29, I wonder how out he was BEFORE the TV show. That would tell us something, but at this point it’s such a unique situation it doesn’t fit into anyone else’s “out” template.
If someone asks you “Are you _____” and you answer yes, and you’re on TV and you’ve even been warned in advance to expect the question, that’s hardly a case of being involuntarily “outed.” (Let alone “viscously [sic] outed” as Queerty puts it.)
Donston
The dude has “gay face” and is “stereotypically ‘queer”. So, no doubt he’s had a lot of conversations like that. While when he was asked and how just seemed extremely calculated. And there’s no way the producers didn’t already ask him these questions before the show. Once again, it’s hard to feel particularly bad for the. He wasn’t merely on a dating show. He was on a show that tries to get strangers to marry each other and promotes itself that way. Tawdriness, manipulation and people getting in your business need to be expected.
Mister P
Some day in the future the labels will be no big deal. Everyone will be just sexual. We’re not there yet.
Donston
That perspective cuts out asexual and demisexual people, and it still places too much emphasis on sex. What we need to be working towards is placing less importance on sex and detaching sex from sociology and ego. We need to be working on allowing people to be themselves and feel free. Working on making sure people who contend with traumas and mental health issues seek the help they need and can be honest about their struggles rather than merely depending on identities or sex or presented behaviors/relationships. Working on eradicating hetero pressures and expectations, masculine pressures, gay shame, queer insecurities, internalized phobias. Working on understanding just how vast and individual sexuality and fluidity and the gender, romantic, sexual, affection, emotional investment, commitment spectrum are.
Merely hyping up sex and sexuality is partly why we still have so many problems, why there’s still so much homophobia and many “closeted” people and partly why identity politics still reign.
Openminded
I want to believe that is what he was trying to say. I have always thought it will be a great day when no one has to “come out” because society has finally realized it’s no one else’s business, and it doesn’t make the person any more or less of a person. IF society can manage to ever get to that point, then there will be no more mental anguish over being in the closet, needing to identify as a man trapped in a female body, or vice-versa. Same with skin color, it will be glorious if we can all truly become uncaring about the color of someone’s skin instead of uncaring about someone because of the color of their skin.
Fahd
All very tawdry and media-whor*sh to me. Remember when the Jenny Jones show revealed to a guy that the someone who had a secret crush on him was another guy and ‘here he is now’ and the whole thing led to a senseless murder and a life behind bars. Ever since, I’ve thought television should be very careful about on-camera confrontations like this. Glad the show is based in Australia, not here, but it’s still TV swill.
andrewl
@Fahd I live in Australia and you are 100% correct that MAFS is gutter television at best. Most if not all of the people appearing on it are doing so for the dubious chance of becoming famous (more like infamous in reality). While I disagree with anyone having personal revelations of any type being broadcast, they would have to be extremely naive to think that was not going to happen when they appear on a show like this. Tacky and salacious does not even begin to describe this show. If I am being honest part of me would like to watch this train wreck of the show but luckily the better part of me refuses as I do not want my IQ to plummet!
James (controversial2019)
I never came out to my parents, and I’m so pleased I didn’t.
I agree that people in the community shouldn’t need to come out.
That isn’t to say people must keep their sexuality hidden, of course not – I refer to the declaration of “I’m gay”.
Shortly after I broke up with my girlfriend (aged 16), I kissed a guy I’d been talking to and had gone on a date with. I was still friends with my ex and I told her. She, being upset as it was pretty soon after I ended it with her, told my mum. Not in a “James is gay!” way (I was honest with her by telling her I was ending it as I had feelings for men I needed to explore) but rather in a “I can’t believe he kissed someone so soon after ending it with me” way. My mum asked if it was true that we had kissed, I said yes, and that was it. There was no declaration of “I’m gay” or her asking me and me having to confirm. It was just accepted.
I therefore don’t see why a man can’t just start dating a man, without it being a secret, and then people will be like “Oh, he’s gay, cool” – but he won’t have come out.
Or, in conversation (or Twitter these days!), commenting on something like “I would love a go on Thor’s hammer *insert emoji of some sort”. Or in the office when the gals are gossiping about the new hot mail delivery man (because we live in a film, in my head!), simply chiming in with “I agree. So hot. He can deliver me his package any time”, and then people will be like “Oh, he’s gay, cool”.
You can let your sexuality be known, naturally, by your actions or words, without having to make a public declaration of: Okay, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages; huddle around for I’ve an announcement…
Cam
Except for the people who get fired for being LGBTQ, or the people who are attacked for being LGBTQ. Being out is not a nothing or a small deal.
You’ve been on other threads defending JK Rowlings anti-trans comments as well as other right wing points. No surprise that you would try to tamp down on the value of people coming out.
The people that come out and fight for rights are going to be the reason that one day we may reach the point where it is no big deal. But when things like the multiple murder at Pulse nightclub are happening or Trump being elected after saying he was going to appoint judges to overturn those “Awful gay rights rulings” we are not there.
Heywood Jablowme
@James: “I never came out to my parents, and I’m so pleased I didn’t.” (Pleased? Why?)
“I was honest with [my mom] by telling her I was ending it as I had feelings for men I needed to explore”
In other words, you came out to your parents.
winemaker
Here’s my question and a very valid one at that: ‘why would a straight woman knowingly marry a guy who was bisexual?’ Really why, she has nothing to complain about. as she evidently knew before the wedding If this was an issue, it should have been brought up and out in the open before the wedding. therefore no sympathy from me.
rbernard
I think it was out of bounds and unfair for the show to point blank out the groom like that in front of everyone on his wedding day.
Most men have had a same sex experience or two and that doesn’t make any difference. It just means then are alive and can express themselves intimately with more than one gender. If the groom identifies as bisexual, that is his business to reveal or not. If he made a commitment to his wife, that is all that should matter.
Josh447
This show is entirely scripted. Noone was side swipped, noone was uncomfortable, short of maybe getting their lines right and worrying whether their makeup and hair looked fab.
I’ve been in the business. Nothing is adlib unless entitle discussed B4 hand short minor exceptions. This isn’t one of them.
Josh447
This show is entirely scripted. Noone was side swipped, noone was uncomfortable, short of maybe getting their lines right and worrying whether their makeup and hair looked fab.
I’ve been in the business. Nothing is adlib unless entitle discussed B4 hand short minor exceptions. This isn’t one of them.
HMFan
Never, EVER, EVER force open someone else’s closet door in public. EVER.