Mean Girls Actor Jonathan Bennett And Fiancé Rejected By Wedding Venue For Being Gay
The “Mean Girls” actor and his fiancé, Jaymes Vaughan, grace the cover of The Knot’s summer 2021 issue, titled “Pride & Joy.”
In the accompanying interview, the two men share some of the challenges they have faced as a same-sex couple planning a wedding as reported by HuffingtonPost.
Jonathan Bennett, who stars in the new comedy “Take Me to Tarzana” and had a recent guest stint on ABC’s “Station 19,” told the magazine that he and Vaughan initially planned to have their ceremony at a Palace Resorts property in Mexico, but alleged that they were turned away because they are gay. He said:
When we got engaged, the owner said he couldn’t marry us because we’re two men and it goes against his morals. That was a sucker punch to the gut. We decided in that moment that our wedding was bigger than us. It’s about the LGBTQ+ community. We’re really making a point to make this wedding very loud on purpose.
In 2018, Giulia Umile and Jess Herron of Philadelphia alleged that Cancún’s Le Blanc Spa Resort, which is owned by Palace Resorts, refused to host their wedding because they were a lesbian couple. Ultimately, the women were married at UNICO Hotel, an LGBTQ-inclusive resort in Mexico’s Riviera Maya region.
Bennett, broke fresh ground on the small screen last fall as the star of “The Christmas House,” the Hallmark Channel’s first-holiday movie to feature a gay storyline.
He is best known for playing Aaron Samuels, the love interest of teen rivals Regina George (Rachel McAdams) and Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) in 2004’s “Mean Girls.”
He and Vaughan have not publicly announced a date for their ceremony, but they seem to have several details already figured out.
Vaughan, a television personality who hosts “Celebrity Page” for Reelz, created symbolic rings that the couple will wear for both their engagement and the wedding.