Inevitably, as much as I'm sick of speaking about him, I will probably find myself stuck arguing about Folau with someone on social media over the next week, so here are my simple rebuttals to the usual myths they throw around.

A short thread:

1. "We are attacking his religious freedom."

There is nothing in the tenets of Christianity that compels Christians to write social media posts telling gay people they will go to hell.

There are literally billions of Christians that continue to be good Christians without doing this every day.

Israel can hold these beliefs if that is what his religion compels him to do, we are free to judge him for that,

but when he uses his celebrity platform to influence people's attitudes to homosexuality then he is causing harm and we have a right to speak out against him.

2. "He only posted a bible verse"

No, it wasn't a bible verse. It was a meme paraphrasing his broad (rather radical) religious beliefs.

Again, he is allowed to have those beliefs. However...

When he chooses to try and proselytise his followers with those beliefs using a platform given to him by a professional sport, we are entitled to express our objection to those beliefs.

3. "We are attacking his freedom of speech."

There is absolutely nothing stopping Israel saying whatever he wants, on social media, in his Church, or on the street.

Take a step back and consider what we are ultimately doing here; those of us asking the NRL not to hire Israel are essentially just customers of the NRL, or its sponsors, saying that if you hire an employee we find objectionable, we may stop spending our money on your company.

This is not an outrageous state of affairs.

Imagine your favourite coffee shop has a new employee that starts wearing a T-shirt saying "Pedophiles Have Rights". Would it be reasonable for you to tell the manager that you'd prefer to get your coffee elsewhere?

Are you infringing on his freedom of speech if you do so? Of course not.

That is the power we as customers have. We are utilising our freedoms.

4. "He also attacks drunks and fornicators, and I'm not offended"

Congratulations, you're making the same false equivalence that Israel is making.

Drinking and fornicating is a behaviour, sexuality is a state of existence.

It is who you love, how you identify as a human, and most importantly, isn't a choice.

Additionally, as a drinker and fornicator myself, I can attest to the fact I didn't face the abuse, ostracism, and alienation that young LGBTQI still do today.

5. "But what if he promises not to say anything bad any more".

If his free speech can be bought, well then it just proves... it was never about free speech was it.

Israel brought Rugby Australia to Court because he felt that his contract with them infringed his freedom of speech and religion, he could plausibly do the same over any NRL contract he signs.

P.S. to all those that donated to his legal fund for his momentus fight for your rights, never forget that he took a multi million dollar settlement without setting any precedent; he took the money and ran...

...and when a French Super League team asked him to sign a contract promising he wouldn't post anything controversial... he signed it. So much for free speech martyr ey!

Never forget, Rugby AU took a massive hit excising Folau from the sport.

They did it because it was the right thing to do; but also because enough rugby fans (customers) stood up and said it was the right thing to do.

It's important NRL fans now do the same.