Religious mother accuses lesbian daughter of being ‘possessed’ after vowing to marry girlfriend
JoJo wants her Lebanese Catholic parents to attend her wedding with girlfriend Jess. (Channel Seven)
An Australian lesbian who wants to marry her girlfriend has been told by her strictly religious parents that she has been possessed by the devil.
JoJo, 38, wants her Lebanese parents to attend her wedding with girlfriend Jess, 28, and for her father to walk her down the aisle.
The couple will feature on the upcoming season of Australian reality TV show Bride and Prejudice: The Forbidden Weddings.
The show follows engaged couples whose families do not approve of their relationships.
According to the teaser trailer for the new season, the show will send families to “a secluded country retreat to undergo extreme family counselling”.
In the trailer, JoJo can be seen asking her parents: “What have I done, other than fallen in love?” To which her mother, Lody, responded: “The devil’s in you. The devil.”
JoJo’s parents insist she has been possessed by the “devil.” (Channel Seven)
Her father, Sid, can later been seen saying he cannot bring himself to walk his lesbian daughter down the aisle.
JoJo then said: “Who is actually going to give me away? I only have one father.”
She added: “I actually never imagined I’d fall in love with a girl. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.”
The reality show will air later this year on Australia’s Channel Seven.
Australians believe religious organisations should not have the right to discriminate.
A study last month on the push for “religious freedom” legislation actually showed that the attitudes of religious Australians towards LGBT+ people are changing.
In the study, 63 per cent of all Australians said they believed that religious organisations should not have the right to discriminate against LGBT+ people.
Almost half (48 per cent) of people who described themselves as strongly religious said that religious organisations should not be able to discriminate against people with different views or values.
PFLAG Australia spokesperson Shelley Argent said at the time: “This push for religious freedom is just a backlash against marriage equality. Christians in Australia are not persecuted and not likely to be. Christians have nothing to fear except fear itself.”
