LGBT Groups, Conservatives Outraged As Straight Mates Marry for Rugby Tickets

"We are not here to insult anyone," McIntosh told the New Zealand Herald. "We are here to do our own thing and travel our own path. It's just seeing how far two good mates would go to win a trip to the Rugby World Cup."

But the stunt has drawn reaction from both sides of the debate.

"Something like this trivializes what we fought for," Neill Ballantyne, a coordinator for the Otago University Students' Association Queer Support, told the New Zealand Herald. Ballantyne added that the competition pokes fun of same-sex marriage "as something outrageous that you'd never do."

Both radio station officials and the two friends who tied the knot claim they never intended to poke fun at same-sex marriage. The marriage was orchestrated as part of the radio station's "Love You, Man" contest.

"It essentially makes a mockery of marriage," Alex Greenwich, an independent member of parliament from Sydney, told the Sydney Morning Herald. "Marriage is a really important institution about love and commitment and it's sad to see that there are people making a joke out of it.

Even conservatives have used the opportunity to make comment on the social acceptance of same-sex marriage. Some conservatives think the outrage expressed by gay groups is ironic.

"This competition makes a mockery of marriage, but so did redefining marriage," Bob McCoskrie, the director of Family First, told the Sydney Morning Herald.