+
More

This Australian nailed why churches should stop fighting gay marriage.

A comedian and archbishop walk into a bar to chat politics, and what happened next was no laughing matter.

On a recent episode of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's "Q&A," actor and comedian Magda Szubanski (Mrs. Hoggett in "Babe") debated Anglican archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies on the merits of same-sex marriage — a hot-button issue currently being voted on in Australia.

Szubanski and Davies were there representing opposing sides of the heated issue. Szubanski, who is openly gay, supports the country's "yes" campaign in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage, while Davies has been rallying the country to vote "no."


In an emotional plea with Davies that has since gone viral, Szubanski passionately explained why the church should have much more limited influence in shaping public policy.

Same-sex marriage: Magda Szubanski nails it on Q&A

Magda Szubanski nails it on Q&A: "You won't even let me marry outside the Church … Why should you have the right to tell me or any other person, straight or gay, what they do in the civil domain? That's not your domain."

Posted by Guardian Australia on Monday, October 23, 2017

"Now, I accept that the church will never marry me. That grieves me in ways that you will never know," Szubanski began, her voice tight.

But, she said, that's something she's come to accept:

"I’m less of an atheist than people would think. 74.9% of people in Australia get married outside the church. Now, I accept that the church will never marry me. That grieves me in ways that you will never know. I’m the one in my family, when I buried my parents, I organized every detail of the requiem masses, I wrote the orders of service, I put the pall over my mother’s coffin."

[rebelmouse-image 19532375 dam="1" original_size="500x275" caption="GIF via "Q&A."" expand=1]GIF via "Q&A."

Growing frustrated, Szubanski pointed out how outrageous it is that the church should have any authority to also decide who can get married outside of its doors:

"Now, I accept that the Catholic church will never marry me. But you won’t even let me marry outside the church. … Fair enough, in your domain, you do what you like. We live in a 'live and let live' society. I don’t want to tell anyone else what to do."

Szubanski's brief but powerful argument was met with loud cheers from the live audience. A "yes" vote to legalize same-sex marriage in Australia, however, is far from assured.

The vote over gay marriage is heating up.

A mail-in, voluntary survey — which began in September and will close on Nov. 7 — will prompt the Australian parliament to debate and vote on the issue, should the "yes" campaign garner more votes. That will likely lead to a change in public policy. If "no" wins out, however, the status quo — which gives no legal right for same-sex partners to wed — will remain. (It's a ... complicated process.)

Australians overwhelmingly support same-sex marriage, public polling has shown. But as the end to the mail-in vote draws nearer, advocates for the "yes" campaign have become increasingly concerned with low voter participation among key groups, particularly younger Australians, who they see as crucial to changing the law in favor of LGBTQ rights.

A "yes" victory might seem inevitable, which could be contributing to lower turnout, some have said noted — but it's anything but. And if voters don't decide at the ballot box, the church will, as Szubanski noted.

"Why should you have the right to tell me — or any other person, straight or gay — what they do in the civil domain?" Szubanski asked Davies, as the audience cheered. "That’s not your domain."

Preach.

All photos courtesy of The Coca-Cola Company

Behind the Scenes Making Recycled Records with Mark Ronson

True

You’re walking down the sidewalk, earbuds in, listening to your favorite hip-hop beats. As your head bobs to the sounds, the sun warms your back. It’s a perfect day.

When the chorus hits, the empty Sprite bottle in your hand becomes a drumstick, passing traffic becomes a sea of concertgoers, and the concrete beneath your feet is suddenly a stage. Spinning on your heels, you close out the song with your face to the sky and hands in the air.

Keep ReadingShow less
@penslucero/TikTok

Pency Lucero taking in the Northern Lights

Seeing the northern lights is a common bucket list adventure for many people. After all, it ticks a lot of boxes—being a dazzling light show, rich historical experience and scientific phenomenon all rolled into one. Plus there’s the uncertainty of it all, never quite knowing if you’ll witness a vivid streak of otherworldly colors dance across the sky…or simply see an oddly colored cloud. It’s nature’s slot machine, if you will.

Traveler and content creator Pency Lucero was willing to take that gamble. After thorough research, she stumbled upon an Airbnb in Rörbäck, Sweden with an actual picture of the northern lights shining above the cabin in the listing. With that kind of photo evidence, she felt good about her odds.

However, as soon as she landed, snow began falling so hard that the entire sky was “barely visible,” she told Upworthy. Martin, the Airbnb host, was nonetheless determined to do everything he could to ensure his guests got to see the spectacle, even offering to wake Lucero up in the middle of the night if he saw anything.

Then one night, the knock came.

Keep ReadingShow less
Education

Unearthed BBC interview features two Victorian-era women discussing being teens in the 1800s

Frances 'Effy' Jones, one of the first women to be trained to use a typewriter and to take up cycling as a hobby, recalls life as a young working woman in London.

Two Victorian women discuss being teens in the 1800s.

There remains some mystery around what life was like in the 1800s, especially for teens. Most people alive today were not around in the Victorian era when the technologies now deemed old-fashioned were a novelty. In this rediscovered 1970s clip from the BBC, two elderly women reminisce about what it was like being teenagers during a time when the horse and buggy was still the fastest way to get around.

Keep ReadingShow less
Image by sasint/Canva

Surgeons prepared to separate 3-year-old conjoined twins in Brazil using virtual reality.

The things human beings have figured out how to do boggles the mind sometimes, especially in the realm of medicine.

It wasn't terribly long ago that people with a severe injury had to liquor up, bite a stick, have a body part sewn up or sawed off and hope for the best. (Sorry for the visual, but it's true.) The discoveries of antibiotics and anesthesia alone have completely revolutionized human existence, but we've gone well beyond that with what our best surgeons can accomplish.

Surgeries can range from fairly simple to incredibly complex, but few surgeries are more complicated than separating conjoined twins with combined major organs. That's why the recent surgical separation of conjoined twin boys with fused brains in Brazil is so incredible.

Keep ReadingShow less
via Pexels

Parents who just can't stop fighting

Whitney Goodman, a licensed marriage and family therapist, shared a video about kids who grew up in homes where their parents were always fighting, which made many people feel seen. It also started a conversation about who deserves more empathy in the parent-child relationship: the parents or the children.

Goodman is known as the “radically honest” psychotherapist and the author of “Toxic Positivity: Keeping it Real in a World Obsessed with Being Happy.”

"If you grew up in this kind of house, you may have noticed that your family would split off into different alliances or teams to try to manage the material discord. Because the marriage wasn't a good or safe foundation for the family, everybody else had to kind of go and form these new teams,” Goodman explained in an Instagram post.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

People fell in love with Marty the cat after his owner wrote a heartbreaking goodbye letter

“I know this is a small tragedy in the grand scheme of the world, but one that I feel acutely knowing that I expected many more years with my friend."

Photo by Juanita Swart on Unsplash

RIP Marty

Tons of people found themselves clicking on the trending hashtag #RIPMarty, expecting to hear tragic news about a celebrity of some sort.

Instead, they learned about Marty the cat, whose owner shared the most heartbreakingly beautiful goodbye letter following his passing. That letter quickly went viral online, leaving folks completely invested Marty's story, not to mention utterly devastated.

Will Menaker, who shared the letter on Twitter, began by sharing how he and Marty first met. Or more accurately, how Marty introduced himself by emerging from under a car and unapologetically following Menaker up to the steps of his apartment seeking pets. Eventually, as the weather began to get colder, Menaker experimented with bringing Marty inside.

“From that moment on I was in love. I wouldn’t say I ‘had’ a cat, but from then on I shared a house with a tuxedo cat I would name Marty,” Menaker wrote.

Keep ReadingShow less

Golden Retriever beats her humans at hide-and-seek.

Dogs can sometimes act like doofuses, whether it's eating a sock and doing the poop of shame later or trying to pretend they didn't rifle through the trash while sitting in front of the evidence. Dogs are also pretty smart and hilariously entertaining, especially when you teach them a fun trick, which makes up for their brief lapses in judgment.

A Golden Retriever named Ellie has learned one of the cutest tricks yet: hide-and-seek. In a video posted by The Dodo on Facebook Watch, you see Ellie's parents finding difficult places to hide. And by difficult, I mean opening up the couch storage area and climbing inside to see if the dog's nose can sniff them out.

Ellie's way too smart for their shenanigans and continuously finds each hiding place within seconds. But it's unclear if she's finding her parents or if she's just searching for her favorite toy.

Keep ReadingShow less