Martha Stewart: I "don't differentiate" between gay and straight weddings

Martha Stewart: I ‘Don’t Differentiate’ Between Gay And Straight Weddings

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Story by Curtis M. Wong

If the experience of attending “a lot” of same-sex weddings has taught Martha Stewart anything, it’s that they’re a lot more similar to their opposite-sex counterparts than some may believe.

The lifestyle expert and homemaking entrepreneur was an early advocate for same-sex marriage well before it became the law of the land in the U.S. in 2015. Her magazine, Martha Stewart Weddings, was one of the first in mainstream U.S. media to highlight a same-sex couple’s nuptials (Jeremy Hooper and Andrew Shulman) in 2009, and continues to feature LGBTQ couples prominently.

As the Supreme Court prepares to decide whether business owners have the right to cite their religious views in denying service to same-sex couples, Stewart is reiterating her support of marriage equality.

“I don’t differentiate a gay wedding from a straight wedding,” Stewart, 76, told PrideSource in a Monday interview. “I just don’t differentiate ... I think it’s absolutely a fact that all men are created equal, and so I just treated people like equals my entire life. Equals in every single way, no matter what their proclivity is or what their sexuality is, or their color or their race.”

She added, “You know, every wedding is special to me.”

These days, the New Jersey native can be seen hosting stylish soirees alongside rapper Snoop Dogg in VH1′s “Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party,” where her list of guestshas included queer personalities Ross Mathews and Laverne Cox, as well as allies like Kathy Griffin and Patti LaBelle.

She said hosting such diverse figures on her show wasn’t a conscious effort to appear inclusive, it “just sort of goes with the terrain.”

“I don’t care who the person is,” she said. “I care about what the person does, and how they do it.”

Later in the interview, Stewart opened up about her longtime friendship with Kevin Sharkey, who serves as senior vice president and executive editorial director of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

“I even introduce him playfully to friends as my gay son,” she told PrideSource’s Chris Azzopardi. As to how Sharkey achieved such a familial moniker, she quipped, “He’s worked for [me for] 18 years, that’s how! He worked his way up!”

Read the full interview with Stewart over at PrideSource.

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