Community welcomes Coopers’ decision to back marriage equality
COOPERS Brewery has announced its support for marriage equality and cancelled its recent commemorative beer with the Bible Society following a recent public backlash.
Over the weekend members of the LGBTI community of the brewer after it announced the release of a commemorative beer celebrating the Bible Society鈥檚 200th anniversary.
Accompanying this was a video from the Bible Society featuring Liberal members Tim Wilson and Andrew Hastie stating their opposing positions on marriage equality.
In response, many expressed outrage in Coopers for sponsoring a religious organisation to make an explicitly political point about same-sex marriage, including many bars and venues that began taking the beer off their taps and throwing out cartons in the bin.
In light of the backlash Coopers has released a video statement publicly supporting marriage equality and rescinding its limited commemorative beer with the Bible Society.
https://twitter.com/coopersbrewery/status/841541620088561664
Managing Director Tim Cooper said he was saddened by the impact the brewer鈥檚 involvement with the Bible Society had on their drinkers.
鈥淥ur company鈥檚 guiding principles have centred around respect for others, and, as such, the recent activity surrounding the video made by the Bible Society has conflicted with our core values,鈥� he said.
鈥淐oopers never intended to make light of such an important issue, and would never and did not approve the making or release of the Bible Society video 鈥榙ebate鈥�.鈥�
Director of Corporate Affairs, Melanie Cooper, said the brewery has always been supportive of diversity.
鈥淥ur company supports marriage equality,鈥� she said.
鈥淥ffence has been taken by our recent involvement, for which we are deeply sorry.
鈥淲e have consequently cancelled the release of our Bible Society commemorative cans and will be taking steps to show further support for our community, including joining Australian Marriage Equality.鈥�
Many members of the LGBTI community have embraced and lauded the brewer鈥檚 apology and backtrack.
Not a beer drinker – but impressed to see Coopers has backflipped, cancelled the bible beer and come out in support of Marriage Equality. 馃憤
— Stephanie Bendixsen (@hexsteph)
My full response to the apology:
— Jason Ball (@jasonballau)
Victorian Young Australian of the Year Jason Ball took to Facebook to commend Coopers.
鈥淚鈥檓 willing to take this apology at face value, and I thank them for their new found support of marriage equality,鈥� he wrote.
鈥淧ersonally I did not feel that cancelling the Bible Society commemorative cans was necessary. To me this is not a debate between gays and Christians, because the majority of Christians in Australia also support marriage equality.
鈥淚f nothing else the past 48 hours have shown us that when we stand together we are a force to be reckoned with.鈥�
Just.equal national campaigner Ivan Hinton-Teoh also welcomed the brewer鈥檚 decision to join the marriage equality campaign.
Thanks for your support ! Equality is about legal equality, not gays v Christians. Please celebrate 's 200th!
— Ivan Hinton-Teoh OAM (@IvanHinton)
鈥淢arriage equality is an issue all Australian companies can get behind because it is about love, commitment, family, fairness, and respecting diversity,鈥� he said.
鈥淲e welcome Coopers鈥� demonstrated commitment to civil debate and to reaching across traditional divides.
鈥淚n a spontaneous national reaction, everyday Australians stood alongside their fellow LGBTI citizens and called for less talk and more action.鈥�
Such sensitivity – poor little butterflies. Now I have to go out on the footpath with the smokers to discuss the for and against arguments of marriage equality. It may surprise some, but many social issues have counter arguments worthy of intelligent discussion. Grow up! and drink Coopers!
Oh please Les – if it wasn’t for the beat-up in some small quarters most of us wouldn’t have even known about it.
Coopers was clearly used by the Bible Society and as soon as they realised what had happened they (Coopers) rectified it and apologised. What more do we want? Blood? Seriously, there are worse and more sinister forces around to worry about than a corporate mistake which has been well and truly rectified. Let’s get over it and move on.
Coopers’ apology isn’t enough.
They did a lot of damage to the LGBTI community. Their stated objective of the ‘debate’ was “Keeping it Light,” as in, light hearted.
But this is not a light hearted issue. This is about being discriminated against, with the intention of LGBTI people being made outcasts of society. The ‘debate’ featured two Liberal Party representatives, who’s party has the intention of doing nothing about marriage equality. This so-called ‘debate’ didn’t talk about discrimination. It was not a debate at all. It was offensive to have the issue trivialised, while at the same time Coopers was waving Bible passages around.
If Coopers wants to repair its image, it should do significant acts to help the LGBTI community, not just symbolic ones. Instead of donating its money to the Liberal Party election campaign, it should divert that money to the Marriage Equality campaign, rather than just write is name on the M.E. list, walk away, and never revisit it again.
The hurt caused by this awful campaign will linger long past Coopers’ light apology.