Nominees 2018

1. Media

• Mark Latham, for an opinion piece that said: “In the same-sex marriage postal vote, gay-left militants are showing their true colours… [Is this] a nation where anyone who chooses not to worship at the altar of homosexuality and gender fluidity will be run out of town? I fear for the Christian cake-makers and tailors who chose not to be involved in gay and transgender marriage ceremonies…”
• Latham then referred to this as a “reign of terror”, before concluding: “The only practical freedom for Christians and conservatives is the freedom of gay marriage never coming into law.” (Daily Telegraph, 12/9/17)

• Andrew Bolt, for equating people campaigning for marriage equality to a toddler screaming for a lolly. He wrote: “Parents have seen this kind of stuff before. They’ve seen a toddler screaming and howling because they want a lolly or a turn with a toy. And, sure, we dads and mums would like them to have it. But not like this. We can’t reward the bawling and foot-stamping because we know it sends the wrong message. It breeds nasty people. Bullies.” (Herald Sun, 13/8/17)

• Marijke Rancie - a.k.a. 'Political Posting Mumma' - for misrepresenting the law in various video blogs, including an ad saying: "As a mum, I've come to realise the importance of voting 'no' to changing the marriage law. If the marriage law changes, it will become discrimination NOT to teach LGBTQ sex education and radical gender theory in our schools. Don't be fooled, they are a package deal... mums and dads, send in your 'no' vote right away, while there's still time to push back."

• Professor David Flint, for suggesting that marriage equality will lead to people who change their gender raping women in bathrooms. He said: “if you like to go into women's lavatories and rape women, you can now say 'I'm a woman'.” (2GB, 9/8/17)

• Miranda Devine, for regularly labelling supporters of the Yes campaign as “rainbow fascists” and writing that “rainbow fascists [are] silencing dissent and demonising Christians…”
• Devine also used a poll with biased questioning to assert that: “LGBTIQ Australians have serious reservations about the consequences of changing the definition of marriage. They do not want to tread on the rights of the majority, for the sake of expanding their own rights. It’s no surprise that they are more aligned with the silent majority than with loudmouth rainbow fascists.” (Daily Telegraph, 5/11/17 plus others)

• Piers Ackerman, for many, many offensive articles… but his reference to promiscuity and animal pens is nominated here: “While there are certainly some homosexual couples who believe they would in some way benefit if their already legally sanctified equal union was endowed with the title marriage, there appear to be as many if not more members of that community who still boast of their promiscuous anonymous couplings just as they did when the Mardi Gras festivities terminated in an annual orgy in the animal pens at the former Royal Showground.” (Daily Telegraph, 3/9/17)

• Don, who called in to the ABC Melbourne morning show to say this during the marriage equality campaign: “Hitler had concentration camps for these gay people, one of the two good things he did – the other one was build the autobahn.” (ABC Melbourne, 11/9/17)

• Geoffrey Luck from Quadrant Magazine, who wrote an article titled ‘Sodom and Tomorrow’, which stated that LGBTIQ people are “not normal”, “not natural”, and “interlopers”. Luck wrote: “...tolerance of the unnatural has gradually extended to those who cohabit with another of the same sex, although for many it has meant swallowing hard. Demonstrative same-sex kissing...is cringeworthy for many. Yet the normalised Australian population is asked to accept these manifestations of a “love” as supposedly equal to that of ordinary, standard, well-adjusted male-female attraction.”
• Luck concludes: “Beware Australia – this is a totalitarian movement on the march.” (Quadrant, 29/9/17)

• Andrew Bolt, who, after months of writing articles condemning Yes campaigners and supporters, wrote this after the result: “This was a vote of love — an overwhelming public affirmation that no vote by just 150 federal MPs stitching up some deal in Parliament could ever have delivered… above all, note this: the widespread homophobia we were warned would erupt in this campaign did not. The predicted suicides have also not occurred — or none that we’ve heard of... the debate was overwhelmingly respectful, at least from the No campaign." (Herald Sun, 16/11/17)

2. Politics

• Tony Abbott, who, after Senator Penny Wong stated that the Government’s marriage equality postal vote would expose her children to hatred because of their family circumstances, said that Senator Wong was engaging in “moral bullying”. (The Australia, 15/8/17)

• Tony Abbott, Peter Dutton, Pauline Hanson, Mark Latham, and Bob Katter: for all contributing to the bizarre affair of trying to ban hip-hop artist Macklemore from playing his song, ‘Same Love’, during his performance at last year’s Rugby League grand final. The reasons included the usual “You can’t politicise the grand final”, and “I don’t want the gay marriage message jammed down my kids’ throats”, and also “there should be two songs played, one for the Yes campaign and one for the No campaign”, as well as Hanson being against it because Macklemore isn’t Australian (why else?). Then Bob Katter waded in with: “It's tantamount to seeping sewage into the debutante ball.” (Multiple sources, September 2017)

• Andrew Hastie, for his meandering reasoning for voting No, including a “child welfare” dog-whistle: “I’ll be voting no because I think marriage as it’s currently defined is a public and societal good, it’s a special union between a man and a woman. It’s a meeting of body and mind - it begins with consent and is sealed by sexual intercourse… now, the reason the state has an interest in marriage is because of the welfare of children." (ABC News, 30/8/17)

• Kevin Andrews, for defying both relevance and logic by saying: “I have an affectionate relationship with my cycling mates… but that’s not marriage. Why doesn’t the law have a place in those sort of relationships?” (Sky News, 14/8/17)

• The NSW Liberal Party, for printing and displaying corflutes (political posters) at this year's Mardi Gras Fair Day saying: “2017: The Turnbull Government legislates Marriage Equality” - not how most would describe what happened, given the bill was from a private member and not the Government... (March 2018)

• Malcolm Turnbull, for putting the LGBTQI community through a postal vote inviting the whole of Australia to pass judgement on the validity of same sex relationships, and then afterwards, at this year’s Mardi Gras parade, he said: “It was like the nation gave same sex couples an enormous hug.” (news.com.au, 6/3/18)

• Bob Katter, for his speech in Parliament on the bill to introduce marriage equality. Katter said: "I refuse to use the word 'g-a-y'. I did very well, if I say so myself, in English... There was a wonderful poem by Alexander Pope, and in it there is a wonderful line: 'Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay.' I had to look it up in the dictionary: 'gay' means beautiful, happy, light, attractive, ethereal... These people... they go around calling themselves beautiful, happy, light, attractive and ethereal, and they're proud of it. You know, I would be embarrassed if I went around calling myself all these great adjectives, thinking I'm a really wonderful person... They take the most beautiful word in the English language and take it for themselves. I think you've got a damned hide to be perfectly honest with you. I think you've got a damned hide and an inflated opinion of yourself, as well." (Hansard, 7/12/17)

• Bronwyn Bishop, for saying that the "progressive movement" as illustrated by same sex marriage could lead to polygamous marriage, sex with animals, and the idea that disabled children should be put to death at birth. (Sky News, 8/8/17)

• Matt Canavan, who, when asked about the National Mental Health Commission’s statement expressing concern for the impact of the postal vote debate on the mental health of LGBTIQ Australians, replied: “Can’t we just all grow a spine and grow up, I mean the debate hasn’t been that bad – indeed if there’s any complaints to be had it’s from those who advocate “yes”… let’s stop being delicate little flowers and have a proper debate.” (Sky News, 11/9/17)

3. Religion

• Presbyterian Minister Steven North, who, when a woman with an upcoming heterosexual wedding at Minister North’s church posted her support for marriage equality on Facebook, summoned the couple to his office and told them he would no longer marry them and banned them from holding their ceremony at the church at all. (SMH, 14/9/17)

• Lyle Shelton's Coalition for Marriage, for claiming that, after marriage equality, Pride events will become mandatory and kids will be forced to learn how to have "gay sex", as well as claiming that there will be a 4,000% increase in children coming out as transgender. (Pink News, 14/8/17)

• Lyle Shelton, for using the marriage equality campaign to also say that parents should be able to send their kids to gay conversion therapy. He said: “Now, children — they are under the care and responsibility of their parents, so I think if someone's a minor, it is up to their parents. And I think parental rights should be respected.” (Buzzfeed, 15/9/17)

• Father Eleftherios Tatsis of Red Hill Greek Orthodox Church, for saying during a service that same sex marriage is blasphemy and that gay people should be shot. He has since apologised. (news.com.au, 6/9/17)

• Lyle Shelton’s Coalition for Marriage, for taking out full page ads in tabloid newspapers that said: “A yes vote will mean radical LGBTIQ sex and gender education programs are compulsory in kids’ classrooms.” (Carious newspapers, October 2017)

• Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge, for opposing marriage equality because: “Parents can't marry their children, children can't marry their parents ... sibling marrying sibling has always been ruled out." He then described love between same-sex couples as: "like the love of friends ... it is valuable, but it's not, and it can't be, the kind of love that we call marriage.” (ABC, 26/9/17)

4. Sport

• Former AFL footballer and TV host Sam Newman, who, after the AFL endorsed a Yes vote in the marriage equality postal survey, went on a lengthy rant against it, saying: “You are nothing more than obsequious, fawning, sycophantic political whores. You have no right to get involved in political messages... Keep your contrived and conflicted snouts out of people’s lives and let people do what they want to do.” (Herald Sun, 22/9/17)

• Former tennis player Margaret Court, for forecasting an apocalypse for celebratory days if marriage equality is passed. She said the result would mean: “There will be no Mother’s Day, there will be no Father’s Day, there will be no Easter, there will be no Christmas.” (The West Australian, 15/9/17)

• Former tennis player Margaret Court, for saying homosexuality was an ungodly "lust for the flesh" and that "LGBT tendencies in young people" were "all the devil". She then said: “That's what Hitler did. That's what communism did – get in the minds of the children. There's a whole plot in our nation and in the nations of the world to get in the minds of the children… They're after our young ones, that's what they're after.” (Vision Christian Radio, 31/5/17)

5. Silliest comment made from within the LGBTIQ community

• Infamous conservative troll Milo Yiannopoulos, for telling Australians to vote against marriage equality. He said: "My instinct would be to vote against it… the paramount consideration is not those gay couples – it is religious freedoms.” He made the statement just weeks after his own plush wedding in Hawaii - where he married his long-term boyfriend, John. (Pink News, 23 Oct 2017)

• Ben Rogers and Mark Poidevin, a Catholic gay couple from Wollongong who promised to vote against same sex marriage. Ben said: “There's never been any discrimination with any of our families, or dramas coming our way because of our sexuality. When I first came out I think one of the consequences was giving up marriage and children and things like that." Mark said: “If we make one exception for one community, that being the same-sex couples, where does it stop?” (ABC, 5/9/18)

• 'Our Vote Our Voice' YouTube channel, for their video featuring these statements from two young gay men: “Arguing for the traditional view of marriage… is not bigotry. If ordinary Australians saw these people who are pushing for same-sex marriage… they would be horrified. Most gay people would be horrified by these absolute radicals who want to tear the fabric of Australian society apart. They’re the ones using divisive rhetoric, calling people bigots and homophobes. I have not heard one anti-gay slur used by the ‘no’ campaign at all." (Star Observer, 29/9/17)

6. Anonymous Idiots

• Anonymous Idiot #1: Everyone who chucked a tanty because they received... a... text message. For everyone who complained after receiving a text message from the Yes campaign, including people who said they felt “violated”, “outraged”, and “bullied” and that their “privacy had been breached”. By. A. Text. Message. (September 2017)

• Anonymous Idiot #2, for distributing a flyer comparing marriage equality to seat belts, saying ‘only one of these works’ above a picture of various combinations of the seat belt buckles, with the title ‘A No vote is a yes to real marriage.’ (September 2017)

• Anonymous Idiot #3, for distributing flyers in Chinese - with interesting English subtitles - warning people not to vote for one political party, for a few reasons such as:
· “if you do not want your children become homosexuality”
· “if you do not want the children have 63 genders”
· “if you do not want your children to learn how to sponke their monkeys"
(September 2017)

• Anonymous Idiot #4, for putting up posters in Melbourne that said “Stop the fags”. The posters also contained false statistics about same sex parents abusing their children, and depicted two people holding rainbow-coloured belts standing over a cowering child. (August 2017)

• Anonymous Idiot #5, for the 'VOTE NO' skywriting over Sydney.

• Anonymous Idiot #6, for chanting “vote no!” at Penny Sharpe’s partner and her two kids aged 8 and 13 while they were sitting in the car at the shops. (September 2017)

• Anonymous Idiot #7: every person who drew a picture of a penis on their postal survey ballot. And there were thousands of you. Understand that the only people who saw it were the poor staff at the ABS counting centre and those who were observing the ballot. Hope you felt good about yourselves….

7. The Good GLORIA – your favourite positive comment

• The NRL, for having Macklemore sing 'Same Love' at the 2017 NRL Grand Final.

• The MPs who changed their minds - shout out to Tony Burke, Jason Clare and Josh Frydenberg.

Interesting fact: by 2016, 60% of Labor MPs who voted no in 2012 had shifted to supporting same-sex marriage, and 21% of Coalition MPs also changed their minds.

• 50 multi-faith Clergy from across Australia, for sending a letter to their supporters calling on Australians to show their support for marriage equality. They wrote: "...we believe marriage is a fundamental institution in our society. It fosters greater commitment between partners, provides children with a sense of security and stability, and strengthens ties with families and communities. Marriage is a blessing to be shared, so we encourage people of faith who support marriage equality to voice their support for the reform."

• The Australian Council of Hindu Clergy, for issuing a statement on their website that gave "unqualified support for equality of all citizens before the law and the rights of everyone to live in love and dignity." A spokesperson explained: "We (Hindus) as a migrant community expect equality before law - how can we expect equality for ourselves and deny it for another marginalised community. Is that not hypocrisy?" He asked all Hindus in Australia to "support others in their pursuit of happiness, equality and their rights in front of the civil law." (SBS, 15/9/17)

• Minister of the Uniting Church, Robyn Whitaker, for changing her mind about marriage and supporting marriage equality. She wrote: "Marriage equality is not a concept to be debated in the abstract. It is a matter of justice that affects human beings who want the chance to make the same loving commitments to their partners as everyone else.” (SMH, 8/8/17)

• Catholic Bishop of Parramatta Vincent Long, for writing a pastoral letter to his parishioners about the postal survey, urging them to act "with a deep sense of respect for all concerned, and for the opinion and decision that each person is free to make... Throughout much of history, our gay and lesbian (or LGBTI) brothers and sisters have often not been treated with respect, sensitivity and compassion. Regrettably, the Church has not always been a place where they have felt welcomed, accepted and loved." (Pastoral letter, 13/9/17)