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TV judges advocate for change

Ricky Martin and Greg Louganis both advocate for same-sex marriage in Australia.

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2013-04-28_0106It’s hardly the first time we’ve had gay judges on TV Reality shows, but with Celebrity Splash and The Voice, celebrity judges are using their position to advocate for social change.

Ricky Martin, Greg Louganis and Matthew Mitcham all appear on screen this week.

Former US diver Greg Louganis, 53, is a judge on Seven’s Celebrity Splash -and must be one of the few celebrities on Australian television to be open about being HIV positive.

”I thought I’d be six feet under by now,” he tells Fairfax today.

”Back in ’88 we thought of HIV as a death sentence. To be here 25 years later, I’m doing quite well. To be doing a show about diving, it’s amazing.”

He has also shared his thoughts on the gay marriage debate in Australia.

”It just seems like it should be a non-issue,” he said, then jokes: ”All my married friends say, ‘yeah they should have the misery of marriage and divorce [as well]’.

”You know what, give it to us.”

Legalising gay marriage would also boost the economy, he said. ”Do you know how much the wedding planners would be making on a gay wedding? Oh my god!”

Meanwhile The Voice‘s Ricky Martin also advocates for same-sex marriage.

Martin, 41, is the father of twin sons. He went public on his sexuality in 2010 and now celebrates the change to marriage that has recently taken place in New Zealand and France.

He tells News Limited today, “In 10 years from now hopefully we’ll be laughing about the fact we are talking about this. Justice for all is inevitable.”

“We are beings of love and unfortunately because of different codes the church has given us we started saying the way you feel is not right, it makes you evil. But look what’s happening in countries like Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, France as of this week, New Zealand …c’mon (Australia),” he said.

He said the legal recognition was “not about faith, it’s not about religion, it’s about human rights. It’s about me having the opportunity to look my sons in the eye and say ‘this is my husband and this is our family.’ It’s about self esteem, it’s about dignity, it’s about respect’.”

19 Responses

  1. This will happen sooner rather then later. The tide is turning against the conservatives. There are more and more reasons why it is to be legalised. With the baby boomers dieing off soon it will mean less opposition and thus will happen.

  2. Personally anyone in the eye who creates a dialog about this important issue should be commended. It’s ridiculous it’s taking this long for mainstream society to catch up to the LGBTIQ community in regards to equal rights.

  3. Gillard is publicly against gay marriage to keep Jim Wallace and the Australian Christian Lobby onside. The ACL hates the idea of an atheist PM but Wallace has used gay marriage as a bargaining chip to hold back on campaigning against the government. As long as Ju-liar doesn’t support gay marriage then the ACL will remain mute.

    Jim Wallace also resents the fact that Gillard did not address the ACL conference because of his “bigger health threat than smoking” attack on gays last year. He is on record as saying that the swing to Labor in Qld in the 2007 election was due to the campaign he ran supporting Rudd.

    Queensland is a key battleground in this year’s election. There have been predictions Labor could lose all their Qld seats (and the election) there, and the last thing the Labor powerbrokers want is for Julia to support gay marriage and have the ACL declare war on the government.

    Gillard privately supports gay marriage. We all know that. She was a member of the Socialist Forum which has advocated gay marriage for years and people who worked with her at Slater and Gordon and who went to uni with her remember Gillard stating her support for gay marriage. Her current stand is purely political expediency.

    The fact is that the window of opportunity for legalising gay marriage in this country is now closing, and Gillard has let many people down with her duplicity and two faced attitude on this issue.

  4. The only gripe I have about this whole debate is the total misuse of the term ‘marriage equality’. When I first heard this in the public domain, I actually thought for the first time in married life that some one was fighting my corner. I mean ‘equality’ hah..no chance, this is the ranking in my household, my 2 kids-joint first, spouse normally 3rd-but you better work out when she wants to be number 1, the cat comes 4th, when the gold fish died I was temporarily promoted to 5th, but soon headed back down to 6th when the rabbit arrived.

    So careful what you wish for

  5. I agree, bettestreep2008.

    Tony Abbott has a lesbian sister. Julia Gillard is an atheist. Yet, they’re both against same-sex marriage. It’s truly bizarre.

    I don’t see it happening with either two of them in charge, but good on them for speaking out.

  6. It’s got nothing to do with human rights.

    It’s got nothing to do with the Church imposing things on people, the Church’s view of marriage was simply a codification of the practices in European agricultural societies, which largely continue in industrial and serviced based economies.

    It will not bring about any social change or economic benefits.

    Most of the debate is just part of the ever ongoing war by progressives against the status quo, largely for the sake proving they are progressive, and the obligatory opposition by conservatives to prove they are.

    Same-sex marriage is simply a matter of society deciding what it wants its culture to be and called. And not everybody is going agree about that, nor do they have too.

    Despite the counter productive extremist actions on both sides it will sort itself out when the society is ready.

  10. Sorry Greg, Ricky.

    Same sex marriage will Never happen in Australia as long as we have Prime Ministers like Julia Gillard and soon Tony Abbott.

    But I give you credit to having the guts to speak out and possibly get into trouble with your conservative Seven and Nine network bosses respectively.

    1. Don’t be so sure those bosses are conservative. I’ve seen CEOs happily meet the boyfriends of their staff without issue. And both have gay execs. It is the entertainment industry after all.

  11. I am so glad Ricky and Greg are speaking out.
    I was in South Africa recently ,where gay marriage has been legal for years,..they seem so enlightened compared to us.
    It was quite an experience recently attending a gay wedding at the best hotel in Cape Town, where such an event there is considered the norm.

  12. I think that your typo “Celebrity Smash” will be quite an apt description on what will happen to the contestants on 7’s Celebrity Splash.

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