It’s been a huge year at OUTinPerth, our team broke several stories which made national and international news, we interviewed some huge stars, and had a lot of fun along the way.

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As the year draws to a close we look back over the last 12 months and share the ten ‘most read’ stories.

10. Young people should blame themselves for being gay

Back in July Sydney’s Daily Telegraph was criticised for publishing an article which listed the biggest health hazards young people face, alongside drugs, smoking and drinking was ‘being attracted to the same sex’.

Australian Greens LGBTIQ spokesperson Senator Janet Rice called for the story to be immediately retracted and called for an apology.

“To all the young people or parents of gay or bisexual teens that opened up the Daily Telegraph to read that diverse sexuality is a health problem, I am so sorry. This is no doubt extremely distressing and sends a message that there is something wrong with them or their kids.” Senator Rice said.

“This reads like an ill-informed article from the last century. It is 2017, we should not be reading this sort of stuff in our newspapers.

“To align being gay or lesbian next to obesity or drug addiction sends a dangerous signal that must be immediately condemned. The Daily Tele has never been sympathetic to struggling LGBTIQ students but this is something else altogether.”

No apology was forthcoming from the newspaper however, instead Editor Chris Dore said readers had misunderstood the article.

“The headline clearly referred to the health issue of obesity, as did the accompanying story, which focused on diet.

“The graphic that sat alongside the story took statistics from the NSW Government’s Youth Health Framework report 2017 to 2024, capturing a broader snapshot of the lives of our young people.” Dore responded to the centre when they raised concern about the report.” Dore told the LGBT Media Centre.

“It is a statistical picture of young people’s lives, from where they live to how they live.

“Unfortunately the presentation of the story has been misinterpreted.” Dore said adding that there was no way that the article was suggesting that gay relationships were unhealthy.

The Australian Press Council disagreed, just last week it handed down it’s judgement saying the article was indeed misleading. The Press Council said the article was misleading, wrong and wrongly informed to place the statistics of same sex attraction in such a way that suggested a similarity between one’s sexuality and one’s health.

9. Marriage Bill passes senate without amendments

On November Australia took a big step towards marriage equality when Liberal Senator Dean Smith’s private members bill passed the senate.

Following days of debate, and multiple attempts from conservative MPs to water down the legislation, the bill passed the senate with 43 senators voting in favour and 12 voting against. Cheers of celebration echoed around the chamber as the result was announced.

As the bill was read for the final time, Senator Smith said he had begun his journey to supporting marriage equality when he read of the love between Tori Johnson and his partner Thomas Zinn. Johnson was killed in the Lindt Cafe siege in 2014.

Senator Smith gave an emotional thanks to his colleagues who had supported him through the long debate over marriage.

Labor Senator Penny Wong described the passing of the bill as a historical event that was an act of acceptance that removed discrimination. “This day has been a long time coming,” Senator Wong said.

“It was not long ago in this country that gay and lesbian were Australians targeted by the criminal law for who they were. It wasn’t that long ago that it was legal to discriminate against us simply for who we are, but equality is a remarkably persistent principle, it is a defining principle. A principle that springs from the simple and power precept of the inherent dignity of every individual, of every human being, and so it has been through human history.”

Fighting back tears Senator Wong said today was a day that changed our country for the better.

The following week the House of Representatives dragged the issue out with a long debate and more attempts to change the legislation, but in the end only four politicians voted against the bill. Already same-sex couples have begun having weddings.

8. The Coalition for Marriage’s Mums wrote a letter to my Dad

OUTinPerth Managing Editor Graeme Watson wrote a personal piece during the marriage postal survey about a letter the Coaltion for Marriage sent to his father.

Cella White, Pansy Lai, Marijke Rancie and Heidi McIvor were featured in a series of TV advertisements throughout the campaign arguing that marriage equality would have effects in education and negatively influence children.

Several weeks into the long campaign a letter arrived addressed to Graeme’s father, who had died over a year ago.

7. The questions that stumped Karina Okotel

Karina Okotel was one of the leading campaigner against marriage equality during the postal survey. She gave a speech at the National Press Club, joined the panel on Q&A and was a regular guest on Sky News.

The lawyer, who is National Vice President of the Liberal party, came unstuck though during a debate on Radio National.

Okotel was debating City of Sydney councilor Christine Forster about the issue of marriage when she was suddenly unable to answer a question.

Forster disputed Okotel’s concerns that allowing marriage equality would have far reaching consequences for the education system, freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

“The reality is in Australia… since 1961 when our marriage act was drafted, it’s been amended twenty times, one of those changes for instance related to divorce laws,” Forster highlighted.

“When we changed the law in Australia to allow divorce that didn’t stop for one second stop the Christian churches, for instance, teaching in their schools that marriage is between a man and a woman for life, forever, a lifetime commitment, because that is the tenet of the church.

“This situation will be exactly the same, it will not impact the church teaching their beliefs, it will have no impact on that, just as it had no impact in the 1970’s when Australia introduced divorce law.” Forster said.

Host Patricia Karvelas asked if it was possible for a civil marriage law to exist in conjunction with a different biblical understanding Okotel stumbled before trying to change the subject.

“Umm, I suppose I want to come back to…”Okotel said, before host Patricia Karvelas brought her back to the question she was trying to avoid.

“Its true isn’t it? Divorce can’t be taught in Catholic schools even though the law says you can get divorced.” Karvelas asked.

“Ahh, I’m not familiar with the Catholics, I didn’t got to a Catholic school so I’m not sure what is taught in a Catholic school.” Okotel said.

“But, most people know that Catholics say divorce is not the right thing to do, and we know that’s what taught in Catholic schools, yet the law is different. How is that functioning and happening right now in Australia? Wouldn’t the same thing happen with same sex marriage?” Karvelas asked, giving Okotel a third chance to give a response.

Okotel then launched into a rambling answer that still didn’t manage to answer to question.

“I’m not across what’s taught in Catholic schools, so I suppose I can’t make comment on that as such.” Okotel said. “Umm, but I did want to raise, I suppose, Christine raised the point, ahh, that, ahh, it’s not a matter of looking into what is occurring overseas, I think in this debate in Australia we have the benefit of ahh being able to see the consequences of legalising same-sex marriage in other countries, and that’s something that we should to take into consideration.

“When this, ahh issue of legalising same-sex marriage first came into my consciousnesses, maybe seven odd years ago, my first thought was ‘it’s fine, why would anyone want to stop two people who love each other getting married?’. If at the point in time the ballots had been sent out I would of voted yes, but ahh it is because I looked into what the consequences are, and the impacts on freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and even things like ahh, the Safe Schools program that umm…”

Karvelas then went in for the slam dunk by pointing out that the Safe Schools program could not be a consequence of marriage equality if it came before the laws were changed.

It wasn’t Okotel’s only fumble during the campaign. During her Q&A appearance she said she had no problem with same-sex couples raising families, and stated that she believed the children of same sex couples were no worse off than those raised by heterosexual parents.

It was a position in opposition to all of her Coaltion for Marriage partners publicly stated views which left host Tony Jones to highlight that she just didn’t want those parents to be able to get married.

Later the ABC and RMIT’s Fact Checking Unit noted that her claims about marriage equality affecting religious schools in the United Kingdom were “baseless”. 

6. Kevin Andrews compares same-sex relationships to cycling buddies

Sky News political reporter Samantha Maiden struggled to keep a straight face when conservative stalwart Kevin Andrews launched into a spiel about how gay relationships were quite like the camaraderie he shared with his cycling buddies.

The Liberal member suggested gay relationships were more like friendships than the relationship of a married couple.

Andrews said he had an affectionate relationship with his cycling buddies but that didn’t mean there should be a law put in place to accommodate those feelings.

The conservative MP laid low for almost the rest of the postal survey campaign, but later returned to declare the postal survey had been great because it delivered a new generation of motivated conservatives.  Later on Andrews argued for the right for shop keepers to discriminate against people on the basis of religion or sexuality.

5. Catholic Archbishop says the majority did not vote for marriage equality

A massive 61.6 per cent of Australian voted in favour of marriage equality in the postal survey, but Sydney’s Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher found a different way to work the numbers.

Archbishop Fisher argued that the majority of Australians did not voice support for marriage equality because some people did not return their survey forms.

The Archbishop said that because 20 per cent of people abstained from taking part in the survey, support for allowing same sex couples to marry was only 49 per cent.

The Catholic leader argued that the Australian Bureau of Statistics announcement overstated the level of support in the community.

“While people are talking about overwhelming support, it’s still not clear that it is overwhelming,” the Archbishop told The Daily Telegraph. “What is clear is we are very divided over this issue and probably many others. The consensus in Australia is somewhat fractured.”

After the marriage bill passed into law Archbishop Fisher said 2017 was an “annus horribilis”

4. Catherine McGregor says her friendship with Tony Abbott is over

In September, Political commentator, and former military officer, Catherine McGregor declared her friendship with Tony Abbott is over after he made disparaging comments about transgender people.

McGregor said she had no doubt Abbott had firmly held views about marriage, but suggested that “lurking” behind his prominent support for the ‘No’ campaign was a hope he’d eventually be returned as Prime Minister.

During an appearance on the ABC program The Drum, McGregor was discussing an opinion piece Abbott wrote for a newspaper last week. McGregor said she had no issue with the former Prime Minister’s views opposing marriage equality, but criticised his comments about transgender Australians.

“He supports traditional marriage and I respect his view on that, but he did however gratuitously roped in the question of gender fluidity and made the remark that ‘a man can’t be a woman merely by wishing it so.’

“Now I don’t even disagree with him on that, I’ve never insisted I’m a woman, I’ve always defined myself as a trans woman, but I’m wondering where the Tony Abbott who introduced my edition of Australian Story has gone?” McGregor said.

McGregor said Abbott had gone from being the man who paid tribute to the struggle that she had gone through with her gender transition to someone who was known using trans people and kids as “whipping people” to make a political point about same sex marriage.

3. One Nation’s Tracy Bell-Henselin: “LGBT is out to destroy families”

Tracey Bell-Henselin was One Nation’s candidate for the seat of Glass House in the Queensland state election. Back in January she caused a furor when she posted her thoughts about the LGBT community to social media

The Courier Mail has highlighted social media comments attributed Bell-Henselin.

Among the comments Bell-Henselin is alleged to have posted to her personal Facebook account are statements saying the “LGBTI community is the real manipulating bigot” and a claim that LGBTI people are out to destroy families.

“LGBTI is out to destroy families as we know (them) and have lived for generations producing babies/growing a family produced by a mother & father – creation!!!,? Bell-Henselin reportedly wrote in one of her posts.

The former single mother joined One Nation after defecting from the Rise Up Australia party. Previously she was a member of the Christian Democrat Party in New South Wales.

Bell-Henselin picked up 22.7 per cent of the primary vote in the state election, coming in only a few points behind Labor’s candidate. The seat remained with the incumbent LNP member Andrew Powell who pulled 35.5 per cent of the primary vote.

2. One Nation candidate warns of Nazi styled covert gay mind control program.

In February Pauline Hanson announced who her candidates for the WA state election would be and aspiring politician Michelle Meyers caught OUTinPerth’s attention.

On her personal, but public accessible, Facebook page Meyers had a lot to say about the LGBTIQ community including a claim that we had access to a mind control program that was developed by the Nazi and Soviet regimes.

Back in 2016 Meyers posted to her Facebook page her frustration about Christians who were accepting of the LGBTI community.

“Are you wondering why even some Christians are being swayed by the gender industry’s pitch and push 4 same sex ‘marriage’ and acceptance of fake families?” the One Nation candidate asked.

She went on to explain the the LGBTI community use a disingenuous mind control program created by two unnamed homosexuals from Norway.

Meyers says the gay community’s secret mind control program is similar to one’s developed by the Nazi’s and the Soviets.

In several other posts Meyers described gay people as being unnatural, unproductive and unhealthy. The candidate labeled the children of gay and lesbian people “fake families”, claimed gay people need therapy for sexual confusion. She also proclaimed the sight of rainbows now makes her ill because of it’s associated with gay rights.

The queer community responded by flooding her Facebook page with rainbow emoji. While politicians condemned her comments. In Question Time Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was asked his thoughts on the suggestion that gay people had mind control powers.

The candidate said she stood by her claims and anyone could google the information. Later she told OUTinPerth that we’d misquoted her but she stood by her statement that rainbow families are fake families.

Meyers secured just 4.6 of the primary vote when the votes were counted. The Liberal’s Dean Nalder was safely returned in the seat of Bateman.

1. Margaret Court declares same-sex marriage will end Christmas

Margaret Court was outraged that a tennis club in Cottesloe voted to dump her as the patron of their club, leading her to declare that if the LGBT community got their way there would be no more Christmases.

The former tennis champion turned religious leader was furious that the Cottesloe Tennis Club have removed her as its vice-patron and has hit out and the LGBTI community saying if same-sex marriage is allowed in Australia Christmas will be cancelled.

“There will be no Mother’s Day, there will be no Father’s Day, there will be no Easter, there will be no Christmas.” Court proclaimed in her latest tirade against same sex couples. Court said the tennis club’s decision to dump her was politically motivated.

“I think it’s sad. You don’t have the freedom of speech today to really defend yourself,” Court said in an interview with The West Australian. “It’s a sad day for our nation when it comes to that.”

The head of Perth’s Victory Life Church said it was a double standard that Swimming champion Ian Thorpe was praised for his advocacy for marriage equality while she was chastised for her support of traditional marriage.

“Ian Thorpe can stand for the other side and there’s no criticism but when we stand for our Christian beliefs or God’s side I feel sporting people are very intimidated, they’re put down.” Court said.

The club has announced that it had decided to increase the number of Vice Patrons of the club, but members had voted against continuing their association with Court.

Court has been speaking publicly against allowing same sex couples to wed, and recently spoke at a function for Rotary where she reportedly claimed that allowing marriage equality would lead to end of all family and religious observences in Australia.

“I sense at the moment you can put a Yes sign in the window, everything’s all right, but if you put a No sign you get a brick through your window,” she said.

“We already have 36,000 gay couples in this nation, that’s not a lot of people when you think about the 25 million. They already have civil union.

“They want marriage because they want to destroy it.” the former Tennis champion proclaimed.

While civil unions have been brought in in some states, they are not currently available in Western Australia.

“It’s not about marriage. It will affect Christian schools, it will affect freedom of speech.

“There will be no Mother’s Day, there will be no Father’s Day, there will be no Easter, there will be no Christmas.” Reverend Court said.

During the marriage debate Reverend Court declared that transgender children were ‘The devil” and accused older lesbian tennis players of destroying the game.

OIP Staff