Gay News

Rufus Wainwright: Anti gay-marriage comments were "out of context"

Friday, 19th December 2008

Written by Francesca Cookney

Singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright has responded angrily to suggestions that he is opposed to gay marriage. The Canadian-American artist featured in an interview in the New York Press last week which quoted him as saying that he was "not a huge supporter of gay marriage."

In answer to a question on the recent passing of Proposition 8 in California, he told the interviewer: "Oddly enough, I'm actually not a huge gay marriage supporter." He went on to say that "any law or amendment to the constitution that deals with sex and love should just be banned in general" but naturally it was his earlier remarks that reporters leaped on. More disconcerting, perhaps was his opinion that "if you want to marry a dog, why don’t you go ahead and marry a dog" but unsurprisingly it was the lack of militant activism from an openly gay musician in the public eye that shocked the press.

Now he has posted a disclaimer on his website, assuring fans that he found the lack of equal rights for gay couples in the US appalling. "To set the record straight (or shall we say gay?)," he wrote, "I am not nor have I ever been opposed to anyone's right to marry - straight or gay."

"In terms of practical issues such as citizenship, taxes, inheritance, etc...it is appauling (sic) that LGBT couples don't have the same rights and options that other people have and compared with Europe and Canada, the US should be ashamed of how they treat love."