By Jessica Carreras
Chris Campbell and Scott Meyers had better brush up on their Kid Rock and Nickelback tunes. After all, the avid XM Satellite Radio listeners have local radio station 101.1 the WRIF – where "everything rocks" – to thank for their free California wedding.
The "Big, Fat, Gay Wedding" contest, put on by WRIF's Mike in the Morning show, urged gay couples from around the Detroit area to submit a photo and statement to the WRIF Web site saying why they should be chosen to get hitched in California. The winners were to be flown to San Diego for the big day.
"A straight friend of ours called and said 'You guys should enter this!' and we laughed it off," Campbell says of first hearing of the contest.
The couple met 12 years ago at the Detroit bar Backstreet, when Meyers saw Campbell and declared that someday, he'd have a man like that. That day came faster than he thought. "Three months later, we bought a house together, and its been paperwork ever since," jokes Campbell.
However, they never discussed getting married – until the WRIF contest came up.
When they finally did cave in and enter, it was almost past the deadline. WRIF listeners must've thought they made a pretty cute duo, because within 24 hours, Campbell and Meyers were posted on the WRIF Web site as the winners. "It happened pretty quickly," says Meyers.
And just as quickly, the anti-gay comments started.
"We were actually excited at first," Meyers recalls, "but when we started reading some of the blogs on the (WRIF) Web site, I started getting a little bit nervous because there was some anti-gay jokes and things like that."
And before the couple was interviewed on the station, the caller reactions were similar. "They have this thing called the 'Bitch Line,'" explains Meyers. "From the 'Bitch Line,' before we won, they had a lot of people calling and complaining about the contest and that the radio was turning into 'gay this' and 'gay that.'"
WRIF personality Mike Clark and his producer were unphased. They held a 10-minute interview with the couple, complete with exaggerated gay voices and sound effects. "Basically, what they said is that they like to take the hot-button issue at the time…and they picked this," Meyers says.
Meyers and Campbell have no problem with the issue either – as long as the jokes don't go too far. "I don't need to go to San Diego to do this (get married)," says Campbell. I would like to, but at the same time, it has to be done respectfully."
The couple, who own the business http://www.samesexloans.com, are no strangers to the spotlight, but want to be positive local celebrities. "Our goal through all this – and we're cool with the jokes that they're going to do, and we know they are," admits Meyers, "but I kind of hope that people think that that there are normal (gay) people out there and not just that stereotype that a lot of people have."
True to their word, Campbell and Meyers are quite the dispellers of the gay stereotype. They love sports, drink beer and could care less about fashion. According to Mike in the Morning co-host Trudi Daniels, they didn't even "sound gay" in their radio interview.
So when they pack up in a few weeks to head to San Diego with Campbell's best friend and Meyers brother, what will they wear?
"That's why we're taking those two people with us," Meyers jokes. "For Chris's train."
"We're not going to look like Rosie O'Donnell and her partner," he adds, getting serious. "We're boys."
"No ruffles," adds Campbell.
How disappointingly un-gay.
