The Australian newspaper has won the Golden GLORIA and also taken out the media category for its consistently transphobic coverage.
The GLORIA Awards which highlight homophobic and transphobic comments in the public realm were handed out last night. The tongue-in-cheek event raises money for charities.
The Religious GLORIA was awarded to The Vatican for their 31-page teaching guide which they circulated to Catholic schools across the globe which stated transgender communities only exist to be “provocative” against “traditional frameworks” and to “annihilate the concept of nature.”
There were no surprises when it came to the sport category, frontrunner Israel Folau was the favourite to win, having picked up three seperate nominations over the last year. The most offensive action according to the public vote was him fundraising $2 million for his legal fees despite being a millionaire himself.
The Australian Newspaper won the Media GLORIA for the entire ‘gender issues’ section of their website, which author Benjamin Law described as ‘Promoting fringe anti-trans extremists while campaigning against medical experts and kids’ hospitals.’ Over the last several months the newspaper have published a string of articles critical of the medical care of transgender youth, and has been criticised by the ABC’s Media Watch.
A new category for the 2019 GLORIAs, ‘Miscellaneous Idiots’ brought together everyone who didn’t easily fit into any other category. The inaugural winner was the anonymous people who recycled the homophobic and transphobic flyer used for the marriage equality campaign, distributing it again before the NSW State Election, telling voters not to vote for the Labor Party: -If you want to protect family value and future -If they didn’t want their children to become homosexuality [sic] -If they didn’t want their children to learn how to sponke their monkeys [sic] -If you do not want the children to have 63 genders.
The awards also look within with ‘The Silliest Comment Made From Within The LGBTQI Community’ GLORIA. This year the lucky winner was federal Liberal member for Goldstein, Tim Wilson, who ‘cautioned’ Rugby Australia for their action against Israel Folau, saying rugby is a space where there is “space for everybody to express their opinion”.
The International GLORIA was given to the USA for voting against a UN resolution which aimed to prevent the death penalty being imposed on people who have had consensual sex with someone of the same sex.
The competition for the ‘political GLORIA’ was a highly contentious ballot which only had one vote between the winner and the runner-up. In the end, Tony Abbott won his third GLORIA in the history of the awards for attempting to take credit for marriage equality when he told channel Nine “When all is said and done, I helped to make the thing happen, I set up the process which opened up the possibility and even the likelihood of change.”
To reward good behaviour, the Good GLORIA is awarded to the most helpful comments to the community. This year, that award went to former Australian Rugby League Player Ian Roberts for standing up against Newcastle Councillor Allan Robinson for his homophobic behaviour.
Roberts said, “When you talk about the high rates of LGBTIQ suicide, does this f—ing idiot not get it? “It’s really damaging to young people who are still finding their own way and discovering themselves and their own feelings of self-worth. It can be damaging to the point of pushing someone over the edge.”
After each category had been announced, all of the winners went head to head to decide who took home The Golden GLORIA trophy. After a considered boo-off, the final contenders were Israel Folau (Sport), The USA (International) and The Australian Newspaper (Media). A thunderous boo from the crowd finally took it home for The Australian Newspaper, giving them The 2019 Golden GLORIA for their ‘gender issues’ page.
OIP Staff, The Australian newspaper was contacted for comment.
