The Australian wins Golden GLORIA award for gender issues coverage
The NSW Parliament hosted the annual Gay & Lesbian Outrageous, Ridiculous and Ignorant comment Awards (GLORIAs) last night, with The Australian newspaper’s dogged obsession with transgender people winning it the top prize.
The Vatican was awarded the Religious GLORIA for a 31-page teaching guide which was circulated to Catholic schools around the globe which claimed transgender people only exist to be “provocative” against “traditional frameworks” and to “annihilate the concept of nature.”
With three separate nominations in the sport category, it was no surprise that Israel Folau took home the Sport GLORIA this 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 both the Golden GLORIA and the Media GLORIA for its dedicated ‘gender issues’ section of its website, which Benjamin Law described as “promoting fringe anti-trans extremists while campaigning against medical experts and kids’ hospitals.”
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 Labor if they did not want their children to learn how to “sponke their monkeys [sic]” and to have “63 genders.”
The Silliest Comment Made From Within The LGBTQI Community GLORIA went to Federal Liberal Member for Goldstein Tim Wilson, when he ‘cautioned’ Rugby Australia for their actions against Israel Folau, saying rugby is a space where there is “space for everybody to express their opinion”
The USA took home the International GLORIA 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 Political GLORIA saw former prime minister Tony Abbott win 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.”
The Good GLORIA awardwent to former Australian Rugby League Player Ian Roberts for standing up against Newcastle Councillor Allan Robinson for his homophobic behaviour.
“When you talk about the high rates of LGBTIQ suicide, does this f—ing idiot not get it?” Roberts had said, after Allan Robinson had said it was ok for him to call people “poofs” because he has gay friends and employees.
“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.”
