GLAAD Continues to Pressure Today Show Over Same-Sex Inclusion in On-Air Wedding
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation wants the Today Show to allow same-sex couples to apply for its Modern Love Wedding Contest.
GLAAD contacted the Today Show last week to find out why its application listed only “bride” and “groom” as options for applicants since Today welcomed same-sex couples to apply to its Hometown Wedding Contest in years past.
NBC originally sent GLAAD this statement regarding the 2010 Modern Day Wedding Contest:
“For the TODAY show wedding, the couple must be able to be legally married in New York, which is where the wedding will take place.”
This is not a valid argument since New York State legally recognizes same-sex marriages licensed in other states. Same-sex couples can now legally obtain marriage licenses in Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Washington D.C. NBC is equating the marriage license with the wedding celebration. Same-sex weddings are entirely legal in New York State as long as the marriage license is conferred upon the same-sex couple by another state.
“Today Show’s ‘Modern Wedding Contest’ should recognize what most fair-minded Americans have already concluded — a wedding celebrates love and commitment, whether the spouses are straight or gay,” said Jarrett Barrios, President of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). ”NBC should stop denying gay and lesbian couples the ability to share their stories of love and commitment and open its wedding contest to all couples.”
But yesterday, Today tweeted at GLAAD (you have to love the modern communication about modern love, huh?),
@glaad We are listening. A complicated issue.
The deadline for applications is Friday. Is this too complicated to resolve before then? After more than 2,500 people sent e-mails to the Today Show, GLAAD’s National News Director is continuing to reach out to Today producers to advocate that they are inclusive of all committed couples in their wedding contest.
Stay tuned for updates.
Jimmy Buffett Hopes to Boost Spirits in Gulf With Weekend Concert
Buffett and his Coral Reefer Band will play Sunday on the beach in Gulf Shores, Ala., which has been suffering from effects of the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill.
“If you’re born and raised on the Gulf Coast and it’s kind of in you, and you don’t feel anger and rage initially over what’s going on down there, I think you’re a hypocrite,” he said in a telephone interview from New York with the Associated Press. “That’s the way I felt. Now, what you do with that is a big question.”
Buffett said a beachside bash just seemed like the right thing to do after he talked to his friends from the coast.
It may seem like a small gesture, but a margarita and a cheeseburger in paradise might be just what these folks need to get their minds off this crisis right now.
Former Child Star Has Advice That Will Change Miley’s Life
Former teen star Kellie Martin (Life Goes On, ER) has some seriously good advice for current teen queen Miley Cyrus, GO TO COLLEGE!
Miley recently said that she didn’t think right now was the best time for her to head off to University. Martin recently told Fancast.com that she thinks Miley is making a mistake.
“I really think that [college] saved me. Fred [Savage] went to Stanford, Mayim [Bialik] went to UCLA, I went to Yale.” Definitely some wise words, considering Bialik now has a PhD in neuroscience and a role on Big Bang Theory. And Savage is now a director and producer whose credits include Party Down and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. None of the former child stars have been arrested, had compromising photos taken of them, or gone bankrupt.
“I’m capable of dealing with life things as opposed to having other people around me deal with all my life things, which I think is really important. [Miley is] actually wildly talented, little Miley Cyrus, and she has a sweet family. If she went to college, she’d be totally set. She’d be set forever,” Martin said.
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Photo 1 by iStock; Photo 2 & 3 by PR Photos.