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Former Australian rugby player, Israel Folau has once again learnt that his religious freedoms don’t take priority over contract law, after GoFundMe removes his fundraising page from its website and issued refunds to all his donors, saying the campaign breached its terms of service.
According to the terms and conditions on the website, users may not attempt to raise money “for the legal defence of … intolerance of any kind relating to race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender or gender identity, or serious disabilities or diseases”.
This provides yet another twist to the bizarre Israel Folau saga, which started with a shy Christian footy player misreading the room during the 2017 same-sex marriage plebiscite – before turning into an Alan Jones-fuelled fortune making venture of bigotry and complaining.
GoFundMe has released a statement today explaining their decision,
“Today we will be closing Israel Folau’s campaign and issuing full refunds to all donors. After a routine period of evaluation, we have concluded that this campaign violates our terms of service,” said Nicola Britton, GoFundMe’s Australia Regional Manager.
“As a company, we are absolutely committed to the fight for equality for LGBTIQ people and fostering an environment of inclusivity. While we welcome GoFundMes engaging in diverse civil debate, we do not tolerate the promotion of discrimination or exclusion.
GoFundMe has pointed out that their platform exists for nice things, like fundraising for kids with cancer – not for multimillionaires to generate more money for themselves out of rallying the cheque books of Australia’s bitter no-voters.
Supporters of Israel Folau say that this is an affront to religious freedoms, and that Jesus would have wanted former rugby union players to be given the right to utilise multinational crowd-funding platforms to raise money to defend their right to continue vilifying the vulnerable.
Short of posting his own personal bank details on Instagram, It is not yet known what Israel Folau will do with himself next.
If you want to hear some strong opinions about Israel Folau, listen to The Betoota Advocate interview UFC Heavyweight fighter Tai ‘Bam Bam’ Tuivasa below:
