US country music star Chely Wright weds girlfriend
Musician Chely Wright has married her girlfriend, gay rights activist Lauren Blitzer, in a ceremony in Connecticut.
The couple, 40 and 30 years old respectively, tied the knot at Blitzer’s aunt’s home on 20 August.
Wright, who came out as a lesbian in 2010, has chronicled the pressures on gay musicians in the industry, in the media and her autobiography, saying that coming out “didn’t help my career”.
Discussing the country music industry, she told the Los Angeles Times: “They would rather you were a drug addict than be gay.
“They will forgive you if you beat your wife, lose your kids to state, get six divorces, make a sex tape, get labeled as a tramp – any and all of it is better than being gay.”
Wright stated in her autobiography in 2010: “I hear the word ‘tolerance’ – that some people are trying to teach people to be tolerant of gays.
“I’m not satisfied with that word. I am gay, and I am not seeking to be ‘tolerated’. One tolerates a toothache, rush-hour traffic, an annoying neighbor with a cluttered yard. I am not a negative to be tolerated.”
Same-sex marriage was legalised in Connecticut in 2008, after the state’s Supreme Court ruled that not affording gay couples the same rights to union was contrary to Connecticut’s constitution.
