Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was the big winner at the GLORIA Awards this week. The nation’s leader picked up the ‘Golden Gloria’ not for something he said, but for a lot of things he seems to have forgotten to say.
The annual awards, which are organised by NSW MP Penny Sharpe, shine a light on the most outrageous, ridiculous, and ignorant comments made about LGBTIQ people in the last year.
The PM was the winner in the political category, and also took out the night’s top honour. Mr Turnbull was recognised for “effectively saying nothing to help defend the LGBTI community from attacks on Safe Schools, and for refusing to overturn the unnecessary, inappropriate, wasteful & divisive plebiscite on marriage equality.”
Malcolm Turnbull is not the first Prime Minister to win the award, his predecessor Tony Abbott also got the top gong in 2014 when he compared marriage equality to a fashion trend.
The international category was won by failed US presidential candidate Marco Rubio for saying that gay adoption is a “social experiment,” and children would be better off orphaned.
The media category was taken out by radio host Kel Richards who said on air; “You really are doing something really dangerous and really terrible to those children.” According to Richards, the Safe Schools program is “an attempt to sexualise and recruit children for the gay and lesbian movement.” He summed it up as “disgusting gay and lesbian propaganda.”
The head of the Australian Christian Lobby, Lyle Shelton won the religious category for a comment he made on the Karvelas program on SKY News. When he was asked how allowing same-sex marriage would affect his own marriage. Shelton told viewers he was worried that people wouldn’t automatically know he was straight.
“If the definition of marriage is changed, it’s no longer assumed … that I’m married to a woman. So that affects me straight away.” Shelton proclaimed.
The winner in the sports arena was boxer Manny Pacquiao who sparked criticism in the Philippines after describing gay couples as “worse than animals”. “It’s common sense. Do you see animals mating with the same sex?” Pacquiao told local broadcaster TV5.
Nominations are now open for the 2017 awards.
OIP Staff
