Israel Folau seems to be in the running for World’s Most Unpopular Man at the moment.
He has lost his job playing rugby, despite being one of the best footballers ever.
Folau took to social media to appeal for money with which to battle Rugby Australia over his termination for saying what he thought, launching a crowdfunding page on GoFundMe that hauled in over $650,000 dollars in the span of a few days.
GoFundMe shut Folau’s campaign down and the money is to be refunded.
Social media giveth and social media taketh away.
GoFundMe shut down the fund raising because there was a huge social media outburst claiming that Folau’s page was in breach of the site’s guidelines promoting inclusivity.
Folau, it would appear, now personally understands the maxim that friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate.
According to a statement issued by GoFundMe’s Australian Director, Nicola Britton, which we will not risk offending by assuming the name Nicola means the director is a woman, “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,” Britton said.
Neither will we assume that the surname Britton indicates that Britton is a person of English proclivity.
“As a company, we are absolutely committed to the fight for equality for LGBTIQ+ people and fostering an environment of inclusivity,” Britton added.
Perhaps the “+” in LGBTIQ+ indicates that there is room to include the other letters of the alphabet, and maybe even some numbers, too, but we would be happy, in the spirit of inclusivity, to see an “H” in the string, either in the front, the middle, or the end.
Now, please excuse us while we start our own crowdfunding page to help us buy a new decoder ring. That “I” just ahead of the “Q” perplexes us.
If it stands for “Introvert,” or “Intelligent,” we will drop our campaign to add the “H”.
