Saturday, November 17, 2018

Bigotry Down Under

One of Australia's leading wedding magazines is shutting down after it refused to feature same-sex couples.  When the bigotry of the magazine's owners was exposed, advertisers had abandoned them in droves.

In a farewell post on its website, the magazine's founders said they had been targeted by "a flood of judgement," and that hey made the choice because they had "no desire to create a social, political or legal war.  White Magazine has always been a secular publication, but as its publishers, we are Christian. We have no agenda but to love," they wrote.   Except when their agenda includes hatred of gays, of course.

Australia legalized gay marriage last year after the country overwhelmingly voted in favor of it.  Photographer Lara Hotz, who shot three covers for the magazine, blew the lid on the magazine's secret policy of not including gay couples.  Hotz, who is in a same-sex marriage herself, said the magazine's decision made her feel "extremely hurt".

"It appears they are happy to take money, content and photographs from LGBTQ advertisers and contributors, but are yet to support and represent us in the same way as heterosexual couples are represented in the magazine," she added..

Many on social media branded the magazine owners as homophobes who did not deserve to be in business.  "It doesn't seem to me that your agenda is just to love, it seems like your agenda is just to love straight people," wrote one.

Another commenter (who clearly doesn't understand what free speech means) said she felt the magazine's freedom of speech had been impeded, writing: "Unfortunately, if you have faith and don't agree with same-sex marriage, you can't run your own business the way you want." 

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