Cory Bernardi’s outrage at Adelaide school’s wear a dress day is the stuff of Alice in Wonderland
CORY Bernardi’s outrage at an SA school’s “wear a dress” day is pure Alice in Wonderland — plucking an anecdote, eating from the caterpillar’s mushroom, then pretending it’s reality, writes Tory Shepherd.
- Bernardi ‘wear-a-dress-day’ blast backfires spectacularly
- Sacked no-voter: ‘I’ve been called a putrid skank
- Yes vote will ‘reduce youth suicide’
- Bernardi labels same sex marriage ‘rainbow Trojan horse’
THERE are some glaring, solid reasons boys shouldn’t wear dresses.
1. They suck to play footy or netty in. Unless you have a Highlander’s disregard for getting the wind up your nethers.
2. Half the time the bloody things don’t have pockets.
3. Um… hm. And if you think about it 1 and 2 also apply to girls wearing dresses.
Cory “Dial Switch To Outrage” Bernardi feels differently; he’s cracked it about an Adelaide school’s “wear a dress day”.
Craigburn Primary School have planned a fundraiser for the last day of term to raise money for girls’ education. The Australian Conservative Senator said this innocent idea – the students’ idea, by the way – was somehow going to corrupt heteronormative ideology, degenderize society, and kill puppies.
The kids just wanted to raise money to buy books for girls in Africa.
What Senator Bernardi was doing is typical of the ‘no’ campaign against same-sex marriage. It’s about plucking a single little anecdote, eating from the caterpillar’s mushroom to make it grow bigger and bigger, then pretending that’s reality.
It’s seriously Adventures In Wonderland stuff.
We’ve had people worrying about bakers maybe having to bake gay cakes, endless banter about an 18-year-old who was denied further shifts after saying she’d vote no, and loads of very noisy people shouting about the lack of free speech.
It reached peak Through The Looking Glass when the people who funded skywriting VOTE NO across the Sydney sky squealed that they were being silenced.
Meanwhile.
The nation’s biggest mental health bodies have said that up to 3000 youth suicide attempts each year could be stopped with a ‘yes’ vote.
This is no feelgood activist exercise. The group includes headspace, the Black Dog Institute, ReachOut and more. Using facts. And evidence. To point out the “real and devastating link between LGBTIZ discrimination and youth suicide rates and mental illness every day”.
The ‘no’ case is worried about boys wearing dresses to raise money for girls.
The ‘yes’ case is worried about the moral issues of equality and the practical tragedy of youth suicide.
You choose.
If you need help call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800.