Wedding Magazine ‘White’ Is Sad That Discrimination Isn’t A Viable Business Model
And the world's tiniest violin plays the 'Wedding March'.
Australian wedding publication White Magazine announced in a blog post yesterday that it is shutting down. Stating that the publication is no longer “economically viable”, the magazine placed the blame on sponsors withdrawing support due to the magazine’s treatment — or lack thereof — of same-sex couples. And the world’s tiniest violin played Mendelssohn’s ‘Wedding March’.
“Last year the Australian law was changed to allow same-sex couples to marry,” said White Magazine, founded 12 years ago by Luke and Carla Burrell. “Since then we have been asked repeatedly why our magazine had not yet featured all couples.” The publication then proceeded not to answer the question to any satisfactory measure, and characterise the inclusion of lawfully wedded couples in a wedding magazine as choosing a side in a “social, political or legal war”.
“White Magazine has always been a secular publication, but as its publishers, we are Christian,” said the magazine in its blog post, demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of what “secular” means.
“Instead of allowing us the space to work through our thoughts and feelings, or being willing to engage in brave conversations to really hear each other’s stories, some have just blindly demanded that we pick a side. We’re not about sides, we’re about love, patience and kindness,” it continued, also demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of love, patience and kindness.
White Magazine is closing its doors.
The Christian couple behind the publication, although claiming it to be a secular publication, was NOT willing to show a single LGBTQI wedding image, that they'd rather shut the doors, as advertisers fled.
Good riddance
— Just Bill (@Q2Driver) November 17, 2018
I’m not a rebranding expert by any means, but I think this is moving in the right direction. You’re welcome! pic.twitter.com/5bMfQKBPMe
— tomred (@TomRed43) November 16, 2018
“I imagine the majority of LGBTQI persons would be feeling hurt regarding not being represented equally or at all,” photographer and long-time contributor Lara Hotz told AAP earlier this year, via SBS News. Hotz herself is married to a woman.
Though White Magazine blamed the withdrawal of sponsors on an online campaign targeting the magazine and its advertisers, many advertisers had previously expressed their displeasure at White Magazine’s stance, divorcing themselves from the publication. SBS News reported in August that several of White Magazine‘s contributors and advertisers were criticising the publication for not clearly and publicly disclosing its policy on non-heterosexual couples.
The magazine instead employed the strategy of quietly ignoring same-sex submissions, only revealing to Hotz that it “[wasn’t] sharing Same Sex weddings at this point” when pressed. This meant that advertisers, contributors and readers were previously unable to make fully informed decisions when they chose to support White Magazine.
#UNVEILYOURVALUES
Time is up @whitemagazine. pic.twitter.com/0j62Zl4r2A— Tanya Voltchanskaya (@tanyavolt) August 30, 2018
“If I had known they don’t support SSM I wouldn’t have chosen to spend a good portion of my marketing funds with their magazine, on principle,” advertiser and photographer Ona Janzen told AAP.
“It appears they are happy to take money, content and photographs from LGBTQI advertisers and contributors, but are yet to support and represent us in the same way as heterosexual couples are represented in the magazine,” said Hotz to Triple J Hack in August.
White Magazine‘s last issue is out now, destined to quickly become its own “something old”.