Comments on: Elevating voices from the margins: Elias Jashshan on Israel Folau and LGBTI cultural diversity /opinion/elevating-voices-from-the-margins-elias-jahshan-star-observer-israel-folau-cultural-diversity/184843 Setting Australia’s LGBTIA+ agenda since 1979 Fri, 26 Jul 2019 08:43:50 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Robert McCormick /opinion/elevating-voices-from-the-margins-elias-jahshan-star-observer-israel-folau-cultural-diversity/184843#comment-622392 Fri, 26 Jul 2019 02:07:29 +0000 https://starobserver.com.au/?p=184843#comment-622392 Three years is a long time. Back then was Folau, as he claims to be now, a “committed Christian”? Or did he ‘find’ religion after he had been supportive of all anti-discrimination in Sport?
These Pentecostal sects are known to indulge in strict, comprehensive, long-lasting exercises in Brainwashing. Probably the most sadistic of all these sects are the Baptists – they are the ones who promote and practice Gay Aversion Therapy and it was on the depraved and sadistic practices of this Pentecostal sect on which the film “Boy Erased” was based.
I only suggest this as it seems very strange that a person who came out so strongly against discrimination – and let’s face it, its mostly directed against people of Colour – the Folaus of the world- and the LGBTIQD Community – just three years ago is now so blatantly homophobic and preaches Hatred of all those who don’t comply with the beliefs he now claims to hold.

]]> By: Dave /opinion/elevating-voices-from-the-margins-elias-jahshan-star-observer-israel-folau-cultural-diversity/184843#comment-622367 Thu, 25 Jul 2019 03:20:42 +0000 https://starobserver.com.au/?p=184843#comment-622367 Excellent article.

I’ve tried not to be racist in my criticisms of Folau and more broadly the fundamentalist Pentecostal faith he advocates, but it’s not easy to point out that this is a simplistic, unquestioning, unthinking, ‘repeat-the-mantra’ religious community without implying that I’m speaking more broadly about Pacific Islanders in general. The racism as far as I’m concerned lies with the American ‘missionaries’ who spread this simplistic and unhelpful dogma to developing countries such as in the Pacific and Carribean areas decades ago.

The other racism angle I’ve wondered about in recent years is the Yes campaign’s very limited incursion into the bits of western Sydney which have the most non-Anglo immigrants. The brains trust behind the Yes campaign included the likes of Tim Gartrell, a very smart guy with a lot of experience campaigning to those communities in their own language on behalf of the ALP. I can’t help but wonder if the subtext here was to increase differentiation between the strong Yes vote in largely Anglo areas (eg Tony Abbott’s electorate) and the weak Yes vote in largely immigrant areas, as if to effectively say “homophobia in Australia is mostly just a immigrant thing”.

(Although, admittedly, it was hilarious when the white supremacist homophobe crowd realised they were on the non-Anglo side of the debate.)

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