Benjamin McHardy certainly couldn’t get his long-term boyfriend Scott Goodhill out of his head. It got so bad that he proposed at a Kylie Minogue concert in Perth, Australia.
There is one little problem though…
… Australia doesn’t support marriage equality.
Although McHardy didn’t intend the proposal as a political stunt, he certainly takes pride in being the latest the poster boy for the fight and wishes that politicians would take notice of the nation’s support for marriage equality. “It certainly wasn’t a political thing but now it is, we don’t mind representing the gay community – and not just the gay community, the 60 per cent or more of the Australian public who support gay marriage.
Many Aussie gays worship Kylie, her being a local deity and all. As for McHardy, he wanted to propose, not only to show his love for Minogue but in hopes of honoring his parents. “I just want to belong to someone – my mum and dad were married for more than 30 years and you want to replicate that,” he said.”
Franklyn
That’s wonderful…but If I was going to propose to my future mate on state at a concert…I think I would make us wear better looking outfits.
jason
This was a stunt. Australia does not have marriage equality in any of its states. No civil unions, no marriages. It’s really quite backward over there. These types of stunts don’t help the cause at all.
sam
@jason: WTF? This was a “stunt”?? You don’t think gay people get “engaged” here just because we’re still in the fight for marriage equality?
Jesus H. This was two very obviously having a wonderful engagement. If this were a straight couple you wouldn’t say shit.
As for this particular event, so happy for them! And so jealous they got to do it with Kylie! She’s the grandest of the current gay icons and this tour really wiped the floor with evvvveryone else 🙂 Good on them!!
jason
Kylie is making a lot of money off gay people. She’s like Madonna, Britney, Lady Gaga etc etc. There are few more gullible groups than the gay community.
As for the proposal at the Kylie concert, it was nonsense. It has no grounding in the eyes of the law as it currently stands in Australia.
Rob
Actually we are very very close in Australia to having marriage equality, as its a Federal Law, encompasing all states, once Federal Labour changes the law, it affects the whole country.
All state governments, except Victoria, (nsw hasnt debated it yet) support gay marriage, and hopefully with 63% of the public sayin yes we’ll have it. Labour will debate it at their national policy conference in december (fingers crossed it’ll be law soon) with the states putting presure on the matter.
sam
@jason: who gives a crap if it has no legal standing? plenty of gay couples “propose” despite no legal recognition.
unlike the other modern gay icons, kylie truly loves us and i speak from experience. shes the perfect icon, and has truly embraced us, and we her. you can see it in her shows and the way she is as a person, she loves us gays with all her heart. you can see how happy she was in these vids alone good on her.
i rarely boil down to this, but youre a douche. seriously.
Danny wilson
@Rob:
Ahhhh rob, actually we are NOT close to having marriage equality.
Only Qld, Vic and now WA support Marriage Equality currently, NSW is due to debate it in July, and unfortunately my state of SA is the staunchest supporter of Julia Gillard, and with her stance on it, thats not likely to change.
At the National Labour conference later this year, it is scheduled for debate. And if it becomes a party platform (and thats a BIG if with the head of the SDA and the right wing labour faction actively rallying against this) then it still has to be introduced into Parliament as a bill and debated and passed through BOTH houses, and with our lovely opposition with Mr Abbott and the Liberals – it is unlikely that is going to happen.
As a proud gay Aussie living in Ireland for a year (where they have civil unions) I don’t see Australia ‘Moving Forward’ (as Julia would say) in the next 5 years.
This saddens me tremendously.
Rob
@Danny wilson
Even so, I like to remain optimistic, they have to contend with Greens who hopefully could sway the government enough :S. I think Australia is a relatively progressive country, it makes little sense to me though, a government which ousted a PM over polls, hasn’t done the same for marriage equality based on polling? Shows the hypocrisy and fear I reckon.
Fingers crossed but, you are right but: it is saddening.