Telstra Bows to Catholic Church’s Marriage Equality Threat

Our primary Telco in this country is a pussy.  Less than a pussy.  It's a eunuch.
A company that has done a great deal of sponsorship and same sex advertising previously, has bowed to the threat of the Catholic Church withdrawing its business.

What a putz of a shmuck of a company.

AUSTRALIAN telephone company Telstra has come under fire after it bowed to pressure from the Catholic Church over its public support of same-sex marriage.
Telstra has been a vocal supporter of marriage equality over the past few years, most recently featuring in a full-page Australian Marriage Equality advertisement in May, 2015.

In response to the advertisement, the Archdiocese of Sydney’s business manager Michael Digges wrote an email to all the companies participating in the campaign and threatened to boycott their services.
Telstra, which has the contract for Catholic schools across Australia, decided to back away from its public support as it “did not want to risk its commercial relationship with the church”, the Australian’s Rick Morton reported.

“The government has committed to putting same-sex marriage before the Australian people in the plebiscite, and ultimately, it will be parliament who determines any changes in the institution of marriage,” a Telstra spokesman told the Australian.
“In view of this, Telstra has no further plans to figure prominently in the wider public debate. Telstra has demonstrated it places great importance on diversity and standing against discrimination, in all its forms. Our workforce reflects this diversity, including people … in a broad range of relationships.”

Australian Marriage Equality director Rodney Croome told the Australian that Telstra has made no request to withdraw its logos.

Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays spokesman Shelley Argent OAM said she was disappointed that Telstra would succumb to bullying by the Catholic Church.
“Your LGBT employees must feel abandoned and not worthy in one of Australia’s largest and high profile companies. You have abandoned your LGBT employees and lowered their self esteem which will affect their productivity,” she wrote in an open letter on Facebook.
“Your web page states that you will stand against homophobia! However, you allow the Catholic church to demonstrate one of the greatest acts – deliberate exclusion, bullying and humiliation by your lack of support. Short term profit over what is morally right is nothing to be proud of.
“Shame on you, your Board and those who condoned this cowardly decision.”

In the past, Telstra has been a supporter of the LGBTQI community. Last year, the company stripped a Telstra award winner of his prize after a foul-mouthed, homophobic rant on Facebook.
It also released a video in 2011 as part of the It Gets Better campaign.

In 2008, Telstra announced it would give the partners of gay and lesbian employees equal benefits under the company’s new diversity policy.  Telstra customers and commentators have taken to social media to air their frustration and disappointment at the decision.


I don't know where to start here.  But I'm going to be contacting Telstra to tell them what I think of this.  You are ALL most welcome to do the same.  Contact details below.  Let's sock it to them.

D
xox


https://say.telstra.com.au/customer/general/forms/Email-Complaint

......................What The Fiddle Dee Fuck??? .....................

................WTF ?????

Some guy in Ireland chops down a tree and suddenly everyone is treating it as a holy object coz it apparently resembles the Virgin Mary.

Well - in good light with some spandex, strategically placed padding and a professional freakin stylist I've been known to resemble Vin Freakin Diesel!!!

Catholicism - it's for nutters............ and leprechauns.

Oy vey.................................

It's bad enough that they worship statues - but now bits of wood ?!?!?!?!?!?

See the article underneath for more details - I need a drink............. Goddammit.

Thousands of Irish Catholics have flocked this week to a County Limerick church to pray at the stump of a recently cut willow that many observers say has the silhouette of the Virgin Mary.

The phenomenon at St Mary's parish church in Rathkeale, population 3,000 or so, harkens back to decades when Catholic devotion and pilgrimages were the dominant feature of rural life in Ireland.

Some are tying the fervor for Rathkeale's "Holy Stump" to Ireland's stunning economic decline over the past year.

"People have been crying out for something good to happen. And this is all good for the soul," said Noel White, who has been overseeing a church project to cut down trees dangerously overhanging the neighboring school playground.

When one willow was felled near the church entrance Monday, he said, a major branch cracked off and made "a funny shape." One worker cut through the stump at a near-vertical angle, revealing a wooden relief that inspires some to see the Virgin Mary.

"One lad beside the one who'd made the cut immediately saw the outline of Our Lady and blessed himself. It really is unreal. Every one of us could see it," he said.

The workman who made the cut, Anthony Reddin, said he doesn't see the Virgin Mary.

"I see it as the grain of a tree myself," he said.

Nonetheless, word of mouth brought about 100 to inspect and pray at the stump that first night. Numbers swelled to several hundred the next night. By Wednesday, more than a thousand came and went as a makeshift shrine of candles, rosaries and miniature statues of Mary grew. The praying continued past 2am Thursday.

The parish priest is away on vacation. His summer replacement, the Rev. Willie Russell, is not impressed. He says locals are letting their imagination run wild and threatening to violate the commandment, "Thou shalt not worship a false God."

"It's just a tree. You don't worship a tree," Russell said.

The priest said he saw no harm in saying Hail Mary prayers at the spot – so long as the faithful don't actually find themselves praying to the stump itself. "I don't believe in idolatry. That would be the danger," he said.

The County Limerick diocese of the church said it viewed the stump with "great skepticism."

"While we do not wish in any way to detract from devotion to Our Lady, we would also wish to avoid anything which might lead to superstition," the diocese said in a statement.