Israel Folau Is Spewing Homophobia Again. It’d Be Nice If He Faced Some Consequences This Time.
Last time he did this, Scott Morrison defended him.
We regret to inform you that yet again, rugby star Israel Folau is back on his homophobic bullshit. When will he learn, or at the very least face some actual consequences?
Folau took to Instagram last night to post about how gays are headed straight to hell (along with fornicators, atheists and thieves, amongst others). This is far from the first time he’s posted something like this: this time last year he was in hot water after telling gay fans they were going to hell.
He did this while insisting that he wasn’t a homophobe. And a friendly reminder, seeing as we’re entering an election and all that — at the time, Scott Morrison stood up to defend Folau, calling him “a good man” who showed “a lot of strength of character”.
“Good for him for standing up for his faith,” Morrison said at the time. “I think he wouldn’t have wanted to intend to have offended or hurt anyone, because that’s very much against the faith that he feels so passionately about, but he’s shown I think a lot of strength of character in just standing up for what he believes in, and I think that’s what this country’s all about.”
Ahh, it's the one time of year I'm only aware of Israel Folau's existence because he's having a go at mine.
— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) April 10, 2019
It’s kind of remarkable that a year later, neither of them have really faced consequences: Scott Morrison managed to snatch a promotion to Prime Minister, and Folau is still paid millions of dollars to play rugby and enjoy a massive platform from which to spew his homophobic crap.
This time around, the NSW Waratahs have released a statement saying that Folau’s been referred to the Rugby Australia integrity unit over the post, which “does not represent the values of the sport and is disrespectful to members of the rugby community”.
The @NSWWaratahs have released a statement on Israel Folau's homophobic social media post.
"NSWRU and Rugby Australia deem the content within the post as unacceptable." pic.twitter.com/l7VLs3xQyk
— 2GB 873 (@2GB873) April 10, 2019
Whether that will result in actual consequences for Folau, though, remains to be seen. His Instagram post is still available to his hundreds of thousands of followers.