Charlize Theron: I Won't Get Married Until My Gay Friends Can (VIDEO)

Another Hollywood star who refuses to marry until it's something everyone can do: Charlize Theron, who has no plans to tie the knot with Stuart Townsend, her boyfriend of eight years. She talked about marriage equality, something she has previously supported, Thursday on 'The View.'

"I don't want to get married because right now the institution of marriage feels very one-sided, and I want to live in a country where we all have equal rights," Theron said.

"I think it would be exactly the same if we were married, but for me to go through that kind of ceremony, because I have so many friends who are gays and lesbians who would so badly want to get married, that I wouldn't be able to sleep with myself."

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Comments

[SteveDenver]

06:06 AM on 10/10/2009

It's okay if you marry, Charlize, otherwise the state will force "common law" bonds upon you.

Have a wonderful wedding that COMMEMORATES your gay friends. Hire all-gay production and support staff (unless you want plastic table cloths and lots of Baby's Breath), march down the aisle to the Gay Men's Chorus, get a lesbian pastor to officate, hire Angel Food to cater your wedding and donate the rest of the catering budget to their food program for people with AIDS, have Dykes On Bikes lead your honeymoon escape!

[Scriobhaim]

08:44 AM on 09/24/2009

There should be no "legal gay marriage". There should be no "legal heterosexual marriage". There should be no "legal" marriage, period. The state should not BE in the business of calling/declaring/solemnizing people as "married". There should be a state-issued certificate of "single household", for tax and other purposes, with certain restrictions and liabilities attached (for example, you can't declare "single household" and get tax breaks for two years and then suddenly quit, without certain penalties - to prevent a revolving-door game). Lots of people who don't even have any intention in the least to consider themselves "married" (like a person and an aged parent, or even just a couple of truly "platonic" friends) could avail themselves of it. Couples who want to head right to their church from the state office, to get (church-) "married" could do so. Gays who want to call themselves "married" could do so (free speech). But government doesn't need to be in the defining-who's-married-game.

[SteveDenver]

06:02 AM on 10/10/2009

What about legal baptism?

[Scriobhaim]

08:38 AM on 10/11/2009

What in the world are you talking about? There is no such thing. What government office keeps a record of whether and when and by whom you were baptized?

[Joe Moore]

09:59 PM on 09/21/2009

She was honored a few years back at a GLAAD Awards night for her role as a Lesbian and at that evening also expressed the same thoughts on marriage. She has been a great voice out there, and one of many, to which me personally I am very happy to have her support.

That and when I briefly met her that evening at the awards she was an extremely friendly and nice person, which is unusual in Hollywood.

[cliffhammond]

03:27 PM on 09/21/2009

My place or yours?

[FeralFemale]

01:01 PM on 09/20/2009

"I'm happy for people who want to get married," says the 30-year-old, South Africa-born Theron. "It's not my thing." -- People, October 12, 2005

[carsntrucks]

02:25 PM on 09/21/2009

Thank you for posting this. I'm glad she's hot, because she doesn't have much going on upstairs.

She doesn't want to get married (probably for financial reasons and she might have some commitment issues), so she's playing up the humanitarian angle. Same with Angelina (who doesn't want to marry Brad).

[FeralFemale]

06:59 PM on 09/21/2009

Other articles where she talks about not getting married usually also talk about her parents marriage. Her dad was drunk and abusive and her mom had to shoot him in self defense one night. I think that is the real reason she has commitment issues. I don't blame her.

[Joe Moore]

10:00 PM on 09/21/2009

This can be read another way as well. The other way is it's not her thing, because we all can't get married. So I don't think your clip out of context really means what you think it means.

[FeralFemale]

08:20 PM on 09/22/2009

"I believe in love but I don't believe in marriage. As a kid I didn't dream about my wedding day because what I knew of marriage wasn't exactly the stuff of dreams. I want to know that I wake up to Stuart every morning because I want to, not because a piece of paper says so.

"I also don't believe in happy ever after. Everything could end tomorrow. If that happens, I'd rather Stuart tell me it was over and know he could just walk away without either of us having to go through a divorce or legal separation." -- Telegraph (UK), June 30, 2008

[FeralFemale]

01:00 PM on 09/20/2009

This comments section is being scrubbed by Theron PR hacks. I've posted at least 5 times past Theron quotes that show she is lying and using this as a publicity stunt.

[Dots]

01:22 PM on 09/20/2009

Do you honestly think Charlize Theron needs or seeks a publicity stunt?
What are you on?

[FeralFemale]

01:37 PM on 09/20/2009

What is Theron on, should be the question.

It is obvious, from her past comments on the issue of why she does not get married, that she is lying. Why does anyone lie but for some sort of benefit.

How can you not be appalled that she is using the plight of the glbt community to ennoble herself?

[JamesA1102]

06:48 PM on 09/19/2009

Thank god Hasslebeck wasn't there, her head would have exploded.

[Liberal Angel]

11:01 PM on 09/19/2009

Maybe she should've been...

[Posterella]

09:50 AM on 09/19/2009

I have the utmost respect for Charlize T. She is really a wonderful actress and a humanitarian. But, her logic seems a bit faulty. There are starving people in the world and she still eats. I am sure she has a lovely house but there are those who are homeless. She has a great career as an actress but there are those who can't get parts and therefore, health insurance and other benefits.

I believe that anyone should get married if he/she wants to. I just think that boycotting marriage is not going to cause the needed changes.

I think one visit by Charlize to a gay-marriage opposed politiician would certainly be more effective.

[Alarmist]

10:50 AM on 09/19/2009

Very good points. I think she is noble to stand up for this cause, but in reality, heteros refusing to get married will in no way make gay marriage happen any sooner, because it does not affect or sway the people deciding those laws.

[Peggy Odeh]

11:33 AM on 09/19/2009

That's a very good point however there is a slight diffrence between the examples t hat you list and not being aloud to marry because you are gay.

Yes it may be true that there atr homeless people out there and that she has a house and that she eats even though some starve everyday, but in essence, the right for them to eat or to have shelter or even to get a good job has not been taken away from them. Circumstances in their lives or their countries make it so they have, more often times than not without any fault of their own, to deal with the offurnate reality of being homeless or hungry or without a steady pat check.

Being gay is part of how a person is born and who they ultimately grow to be. No actual circumtances makes a person gay besides prenatal disposition. So the fact that they can't marry because of that fact, one they cannot change, justifies her stance.

When you starve, are homeless, need a job, there is always a chance, although minute, than a helping hand may come along and make things better. However, when you are gay, NOONE can "make it better" or make you "non gay".....

[Joe Moore]

10:06 PM on 09/21/2009

You said what I was thinking. Homeless aren't barred from having a place to live. The hungry in the world are not stopped from eating. Gays and Lesbians are not able to get married, so this is something that she is protesting in her own way by not getting married.

I know non-famous people who have the same stance. They're still not married because gay marriage isn't legal. They are doing this to show that it's not an US vs. THEM mentality, we're all in this together and thus if one of us is being mistreated it needs to be delt with by all parties.

[TheBender]

07:13 AM on 09/19/2009

no one cares.

[SteveDenver]

06:08 AM on 10/10/2009

I care, that makes you "no one"

[mamacat]

03:25 AM on 09/19/2009

Good on you Ms. Theron!

[commarcos]

11:44 PM on 09/18/2009

I hope anyone who can will come out to the equality march Oct 11 in Washington DC. I am straight and will be bringing my fiance. It is time we all stand up and never allow others to dictate who we love (as long as it is not exploitative).

[margent7]

01:51 AM on 09/19/2009

It is amazing that you have to add that last caveat, as long as it is not exploitative, in speaking to marriage as God intended it that statement wouldnt even be thought about.

[Dots]

12:53 PM on 09/19/2009

All these people who know what God intended are so rightous. Prove it.
Did God also tell you why some are born gay?

[FantasticFourFan]

10:03 PM on 09/18/2009

You tell 'em Charlize! Anyone who opposes gay marriage is a bigot and hate monger. They deserve to have their children taken away.

[SteveDenver]

06:07 AM on 10/10/2009

Most of their kids run away

[hypnotoad72]

08:56 PM on 09/18/2009

But you still jump in the sack?

Or do anything substantial?

[JohnBryansFontaine]

04:33 PM on 09/18/2009

This could be the plot for the next season of '24': the government, as well as the entire nation is paralyzed because Charlize Theron refuses to get married.

[Phxflyer]

02:56 PM on 09/18/2009

There go my plans for the weekend.