Coopers "debate" is homophobic

                         Coopers Fake Debate

 The Bible society is a right wing religious hate group that advocates for teaching the bibles in schools, is against the Australian constitution, and opposes equal rights for LGBT Australians, they even have a book "that celebrates impact of the Bible on Australia’s First Nations People!".

 THAT'S PROBLEMATIC

 This bible society has teamed up with Coopers (a brewery that is a heavy donator to the Coalition) as part of a "creative campaign" they have place bible verses on a light Coopers beer's labels and are hosting light discussions on heavy topics. 

 The campaign started with a "debate" on marriage equality. 

And oh my it is a disingenuous bit of rubbish. So we have two coalition politicians siting around a cafe table with the "debate moderator". We are told that one of the politicians is pro-equal rights and the other is for discrimination.
 But that's really where the problem begins they don't call it marriage equality they call it same-sex marriage, and they don't call it pro-discrimination they call it pro-traditional marriage. So right from the start they are phrasing the "debate" in a biased way. And lets just look at that claim of traditional marriage a little bit,

 It is a fact that same sex couples have been getting married since at least 3100 BCE, please observe that this is long before the invention of Christianity which was around 355CE.

  In Australia we see that our marriage laws were changed in the marriage act in 2004, marriage was re-defined to specifically and unconstitutionally to exclude same sex couples. 

 So which is more traditional? 

Being a radical christian group its possible The bible society meant biblical marriage instead of traditional marriage. But that would lead to more problems check out biblical marriage here.

 Firstly the Bible Society claims that "Australia's national conversation has become fraught with shallowness and contempt for those who have a differing opinion,". I would agree that the homophobes excuses for denying LGBT Australians equal rights are often shallow, i would also add nonsensical. I would also agree that homophobes including those using the religion of Christianity as an excuse for their bigotry  have shown contempt for innocent homosexuals for over 200 years and continue to do so. 

 But as to a differing opinion, well that putting it very mildly, the pro-equality side is simply asking that LGBT Australians are given the constitutional rights they should have while the other homophobic side is fighting to keep a 2004 law that actively discriminates against LGBT Australians, i think that's a bit more then a differing opinion. And the only real reason the bigots have for this pro-discrimination stance is they hate gay people, and i don't think that's a good enough excuse to deny equal rights.

Now that that's out of the way i will just correct some of the misinformation presented in the "debate".

 Anyone who opposes Homosexual people having equal rights is by definition homophobic. 

 Equal rights is not a "light" subject, Not when a hate group endorsed by Coalition politicians has recently praised ISIL for killing gay men. Not when homophobes protesting an anti-bullying school program call LGBT children pedophiles and incite others to hang them. Not when up to 17% of male suicides would be prevented by simply allowing marriage equality.

 To suggest the two positions one wanting their constitutional rights and the other wanting discrimination are equal is ridiculous. Whats next a "debate' about racial equality with racists where the two positions are treated as having equal merit?

   

 It is impossible to have a real debate with homophobes. The first thing the homophobe said was a lie.Marriage has not always and is not even currently between one man and one woman, to say otherwise means he is ill informed and therefore shouldn't be forwarding a position on the matter or he is active being actively deceitful. As marriage between same sex couples have been happening since around 3100 BCE then that too predates the Australian state, but look it also predates Christianity. The moderator should have corrected this misinformation, or a better pro-equality speaker should have been given the opportunity to do so. But as it stands now it might look to the uninformed viewer that the homophobes argument was accurate and had merit, while in reality it did not.

 Suggested Bible Verse 01:

 The simple fact is that there is no valid argument against marriage equality. The current laws which re-defined marriage in 2004 to specifically deny same-sex couples the right to marry is immoral, unconstitutional and discriminatory. It should also be noted that the marriage laws are not supposed to reflect one religions current definition of marriage, civil marriage and religious marriage are supposed to be two separate things. Correcting the legal definition of marriage will not effect any religions homophobic definition of marriage at all.

Suggested Bible Verse 02:

What you can do:

Fax your MP and demand they uphold the Australian constitution and embrace Marriage Equality.

A lot of decent people are also boycotting Coopers brewery for this homophobic act.

UPDATE: 

 Coopers brewery have responded to the outcry of disgust by decent Australians. Their first press release defended the "Debate" advertisement, and went so far as to falsely claim the "debate" in the advertisement was balanced! They went on to childishly claim that those offended by the fake debate advertisement were not mature, and that Australia needs to debate if innocent people should have equal rights or if we should continue to allow discrimination against them. 

 They also made the demonstrably false claim that by participating in this joint campaign with the bible society they were not trying to spread any religious messages, this despite the fact that that is the bible society stated purpose for the campaign.

 In this press release there was no apology to the LGBT community of Australia, and there wasn't even mention of the LGBT community. They also didn't commit to doing the Australian thing by standing up for the underdog and making sure LGBT Australians have a fair go at marriage.

                                Awkward Moments Children's Bible a great source for verses

After the backlash from that first obnoxious press release Coopers Brewery released another. This one also repeated the insulting falsehood that they were not pushing any religious message. 
 But remarkably they now claimed that they had nothing to do with the fake debate Coopers advertisement claiming further that their brand was used illegally without their permission. 
 Now if this is true they will obviously try to sever all ties with this horrible bible society and at the very least will sue them in order to protect the Coopers brand. If its true.
 Again no support of equality, LGBT Australians equal rights were mentioned. They didn't identify how they were going to try to mend the damage to the LGBT Australians, or there brand identity.

 #boycottcoopers

 Its not just decent individual Australians who are boycotting Coopers, many clubs and pubs have shown their support for human rights by boycotting Coopers! Careful or you might rekindle our faith in humanity. 
 And wouldn't this be another great opportunity for Prime Minister Trumble to show he has a backbone and actually give LGBT Australians their equal rights?

 VIDEO

* Our video guy is recovering from surgery, he will make a YouTube version of this story when he can, sorry for any inconvenience.