The Fail/Blair family The producer of Mitre 10 Dream Home has dismissed criticism that a lesbian couple making the final two is “PC madness” as rubbish. Christchurch couple Jay Blair and Amanda Fail are taking on Martyn and Sarah Giles in the reality home-build show. While there have been plenty of positive comments, many viewers have rushed to social media to complain about Blair and Fail’s model house not having windows, while others have decided that a lesbian couple getting through is due to "PC madness". Producer Gavin Wood says that is rubbish. “To suggest that we made a PC decision would mean that we had to view Jay and Amanda as different to the other five families, which are relationships of engaged, de facto and married couples,” he tells GayNZ.com Daily News. “Relationship status didn’t matter. That Jay and Amanda are a same sex relationship is irrelevant. What’s relevant is they’re a fun and loving couple, dedicated to the welfare of their children and worthy of a chance to start again in a broken city.” When asked the loaded question of whether there was a conscious decision to include a lesbian couple in the final six families, Wood says that’s like asking whether there was a conscious decision to include a hetro couple. “As you know there were two couples chosen, one by public vote, the other by the judges. All six families had been pre-selected for their personality and other factors that contribute to being good talent for a reality TV show.” There have been some homophobic and hateful comments on the Mitre 10 Dream Home Facebook page, but these have been swiftly dealt with by the page’s admin. Wood believes such comments are coming from a minority: “I would propose that the majority of New Zealand viewers are mature enough to accept Amanda and Jay for who they are rather than what they are labelled as.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 4th July 2013 - 11:03am