You Might Like
Without a Trace’s Anthony LaPaglia: Australia needs to catch up on same-sex marriage
‘If the United States beats Australia to making gay marriage legal, you’re in trouble,’ Australian actor Anthony LaPaglia told AAP on Saturday. ‘It says a lot about the current administration here.’
Best known for his FBI agent Jack Malone character on the American TV series Without a Trace, the Adelaide, South Australia-born actor is back in his home country to promote the screen adaptation of gay activist Timothy Conigrave’s memoir Holding The Man.
The book charts the Australian activist-actor-writer’s 15-year relationship with the captain of his high school’s Australian rules team, John Caleo, who the former met when the pair attended an all-boys school in Melbourne during the 1970s.
LaPaglia, who plays the captain’s father, Bob Caleo, says moves to legalize same-sex marriage in Australia is long overdue.
‘It just shocks me that we are culturally behind like that,’ said the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.
The government needs to take note of the growing support for same-sex marriage around the world, he said.
‘Denying people their rights is like trying to fight your way against a rip tide.’
‘You hear a lot of shit being thrown out against the US, but we need to look here,’ said the actor who was also on TV show Frasier as Simon Moon.
‘We should be a much more progressive country than we are.’
He believes the love story in Holding the Man will touch many Australians.
‘It will strike a chord with people who have an opinion on this issue, some negative, and it will turn some people’s opinions.’
Australia’s federal parliament is likely to see a cross-party bill to legalize gay marriage when it resumes on Tuesday following its winter break.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has not granted his Liberal party a free vote while the Labor party says it supports same-sex marriage.
The post Without a Trace’s Anthony LaPaglia: Australia needs to catch up on same-sex marriage appeared first on Gay Star News.
Sylvia Tan
You Might Like
