It was a buoyant mood on the set of Neighbours earlier this year for the long running soap’s first same sex wedding, and so it should be.
There were smiles all round when the characters of Aaron and David, played by Matt Wilson and Takaya Honda, tied the knot – legally – with Magda Szubanski playing the role of the hilarious celebrant.
After last year’s resounding YES vote for marriage equality, the next step for Neighbours writers and producers was obvious. They needed a same-sex wedding.
They should be applauded for acting quickly, marrying two of the more popular cast members and characters on the show.
Aaron and David tie the knot on Neighbours.
Neighbours, although it isn’t as huge in Australia as it once was, is still an important part of Australia’s television landscape and cultural psyche. Some of the soap’s weddings have been iconic, who could forget the wedding of Scott and Charlene, played by Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue, in 1987?
Producers should also be applauded as well for signing up Magda as the marriage celebrant, as for many she was the face of the successful YES campaign last year.
“Who would have thought when we were watching Scott and Charlene tie the knot, that 30 odd years later we would have a same-sex marriage on Neighbours,” Magda told me on set.
“It really is beyond imagining for gay people of my age.”
Magda stars as the celebrant at Aaron and David’s wedding.
“One day hopefully not too soon, we won’t be making a deal about a same-sex wedding on a television show as we are now,” she continues.
Magda is exactly right, but because this is the first same-sex wedding on Australian television, the wedding of Aaron and David deserves to be celebrated loudly.
It’s an Australian television moment of history, and cheers to that.
Neighbours airs weeknights, 6:30pm, on Eleven.
