‘Q&A’ Have Announced The Final Line-Up For Their LGBTI Special; Fred Nile Still There For Some Reason

Earlier this week the ABC announced a special LGBTI-centric episode of Q&A, and now the full lineup for the June 15 broadcast has been released. Hosted by comedian and Triple J presenter Tom Ballard, Q&A’s Between a Frock and a Hard Place special features four interesting and relevant figures in the contemporary LGBTI conversation.

Academic and author Dennis Altman has been campaigning for LGBTI rights since the ’60s, and once brought a book banned by Australian law for its depiction of homosexuality through Sydney Airport, a move that eventually led to the repeal of an outdated obscenity law. Julie McCrossin has a similar storied history of activism, being involved with the ’70s protests that eventually became the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and blazing a trail for queer women in media with her radio broadcasting on the ABC in the ’80s. Paul Capsis is an actor and cabaret performer with decades’ worth of TV shows, films and stage productions to his name, and Julia Doulman was the subject of a film documenting her gender transition that she screened in her rural hometown of Bathurst in 2003.

Joining them will be minister, conservative politician, longtime LGBTI-people-not-liker and roasted walnut the Reverend Fred Nile, a guy who believes marriage equality will lead to legalised bestiality and prays for rain every Mardi Gras. Nile’s contribution is likely to consist largely of shaking his head and saying “nope, that’s icky” every time someone else finishes speaking.

As has been pointed out exhaustively elsewhere in the last couple days, chucking a numpty like Nile on a panel about LGBTI issues is an exploitative, damaging and cynical move for all kinds of reasons. On the one hand, having a contrarian voice on a panel likely to be dominated by furious agreement isn’t a bad idea. On the other, getting someone like Fred Nile to be that contrarian voice reduces what could’ve been an insightful and valuable discussion on where Australia’s at on LGBTI rights and issues into an an hour-long rendition of “[insert bigoted statement here] OMG [insert outraged tweet here]”, and pigeonholing Nile as a nasty but ultimately harmless crank we can wheel out whenever we want a good dose of outrage-salts to get the juices flowing ignores that the guy has a large and deeply concerning level of power in NSW’s Upper House, which he frequently uses to great effect.

BUT people will tune in, if only because TV that carefully orchestrates outrage is the crack cocaine of the early 21st-century media industry. Come Tuesday morning we will all be drowning in recaps, reaction pieces, takedowns, compilations of outraged Tweets, statements from public figures boldly declaring Fred Nile to be out-of-touch, and our own sweet, sweet self-righteousness now that the dragon of the moment has been slain for the umpteenth time to no practical effect whatsoever. Wahey.