'Mean Girls' Star Jonathan Bennett Recalls Gay Bias 'Sucker Punch' While Planning Wedding

"Mean Girls" star Jonathan Bennett will soon say "I do" to his fiancé, Jaymes Vaughan. But there might have been a moment when he thought "I don't believe this happening," after his wedding was allegedly turned away from a venue because he and his husband to be are gay..

In an interview for the summer issue of The Knot magazine, Bennett said his upcoming nuptials were originally planned to take place at a Palace Resorts property in Mexico. However, the owner said that he could not marry the pair for "moral" reasons.

"When we got engaged, the owner said he couldn't marry us because we're two men and it goes against his morals," Bennett told The Knot. He and Vaughan appear together on the cover.

"That was a sucker punch to the gut. We decided in that moment that our wedding was bigger than us," he said. "It's about the LGBTQ+ community. We're really making a point to make this wedding very loud on purpose."

As reported by the Huffpost, the resort did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, same-sex couples being turned away for being gay continues to be a hurtful experience.

Just last week, another gay couple made headlines when a venue in North Carolina turned their wedding away because it went against the owner's Christian beliefs.

In 2018, Giulia Umile and Jess Herron of Philadelphia alleged that Cancún's Le Blanc Spa Resort, which is owned by Palace Resorts, refused to host their wedding because they were a lesbian couple. Ultimately, the women were married at UNICO Hotel, an LGBTQ-inclusive resort in Mexico's Riviera Maya region.

Bennett, who stars in the new comedy "Take Me to Tarzana," said that the experience has only made him want to be more bold in his expression of queerness, both on- and off-screen.

"The pandemic has made us step back and look at what's important," Bennett told The Knot. "I want to tell these kinds of stories. I want to get married to Jaymes and make sure our love is very loud for everyone to see. We're doing a lot of firsts. I hope by doing all of this, it changes some hearts and minds and helps people in our community feel seen and represented."

The "Mean Girls" actor and Vaughan grace the cover of The Knot's summer 2021 issue, titled "Pride & Joy." In the accompanying interview, the two men share some of the challenges they've faced as a same-sex couple planning a wedding.

Bennett, 39, broke fresh ground on the small screen last fall as the star of "The Christmas House," the Hallmark Channel's first holiday movie to feature a gay storyline. He is best known for playing Aaron Samuels, the love interest of teen rivals Regina George (Rachel McAdams) and Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) in 2004's "Mean Girls."

He and Vaughan have not publicly announced a date for their ceremony, but they seem to have several details already figured out. Vaughan, a television personality who hosts "Celebrity Page" for Reelz, created symbolic rings that the couple will wear for both their engagement and the wedding.

"There really isn't a precedent for two guys," Vaughan told The Knot. "I knew we both wanted to wear rings to say we're engaged. ... When you wear the ring diamond-side out, the world sees we're engaged. When we get married, it flips and the diamonds face us, because my world is more beautiful with you in it forever."