6 Times Australia's Out Senator Penny Wong Crushed Bigoted Opponents

Australia's first openly lesbian Senator Penny Wong is not one to stand idly by while other's spew ignorance, and currently she is taking on the marriage battle in her country. Some of Wong's fellow Aussies have displayed an alarming amount of stupidity and ignorance around marriage. So Wong has found herself in the position of having to  mangle her opponents with an adequate dose of logic. Here are 6 times Wong crushed her opponents. 

1. Against the old, same-sex marriage is bad for the kids argument. 

When current Senate leader Eric Abetz recently argued that establishing marriage equality in Australia could lead to the denial of proper male and female role models to children, Wong had one short burning response to Abetz: "Memo to Eric: we've already got children," Wold said according to The Guardian. "All you are doing is saying parents can't be married."

Wong and her partner Sophie Allouache have two young children. Amidst all the negativity, she still "sympathizes" with her opponents, she has said. "I find it sad that senior politicians in this country seem to want to tell my children, and children of other same-sex couples, that somehow they are not normal," Wong told Australian radio.

Cheers to Wong for thinking a thousand steps ahead for younger generation.

2. Against the Anti-Feminist Viewpoint. 

Australian senator Michaelia Cash refused to identify with feminism because she regarded it as a "movement [which] was a set of ideologies from many, many decades ago now," Cash told Fairfax Media.

Wong then pointed out that Cash's vocabulary is rusty. "I think [feminist] is more than a label, it's an expression of your ideals," said Wong, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. She reopened the issue in a Sydney lecture and said, as reported by The Guardian, "I say that if you are a supporter of gender equality you are a feminist - and that it is important to use and be proud of the term... We have the right to vote, we have access to education, to jobs and careers and the prospect of economic independence and sexual freedom only because the feminists of earlier generations fought on our behalf."

Wong doesn't only advocate for gender equality, but she also fights for proper grammar and use of language.

3. Against Discrimination. 

Wong, who was born to a Malaysian Chinese father and European Australian mother, has revealed that she had experienced marginalization when she was younger. So, when the attorney general George Brandis, during a discussion about the Racial Discrimination Act, accused Wong of being "extraordinarily bigoted and extraordinarily ignorant," Wong got emotional and decided to discontinue her argument with Brandis, according to The Guardian.

Wong tried to give reason to Brandis' way of thinking, saying, "For them, it seems to be an abstract philosophical or legal argument. For them it's a game, it's a debate about words and abstract principles." But for people who were racially discriminated against? "It is a deeply personal debate," continued Wong. "It's actually a debate about real people and real hurt."

4. Against Globalization.

Wong has proved that she's an intellectual jack-of-all-trades. First, she introduced the word "panacea," which means a solution or remedy, to the Australian government. Of course, she used it perfectly in a sentence: "Protectionism is a false panacea." 

Protectionism aims to impose tariffs on imports to secure local jobs. Wong, however, advocates for free trade agreements because "it is in Australia's national interest," according to The Guardian. She recognizes the advantages as well as the accelerated changes that globalization presents. And she wants the Labor Party to be responsible for ensuring that Australian citizens wouldn't fall behind.

5. Against those who shame women in the media. 

In 2012, Australian trash magazine Zoo Weekly digitally altered a lingerie model's body with the face of Australian senator Sarah Hanson-Young. As part of the settlement between the two parties, Bauer Media had to issue an apology to Hanson-Young and admit to their shoddy "journalism."

Wong, whose statements are treasured and well-received, told Fairfax Media, "I look forward to a day when some of the media realize it's not appropriate to portray women this way." 

6. When she said this about Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

6. on Tony Abbott.

"The prime minister, Tony Abbott, is Australia's biggest roadblock to marriage equality."

*drops mic*

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