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by Bryce Corbett

As with so many things in life, Coopers' response to the Bible Society brouhaha on Monday was as much about what wasn't said as it was about what was said.

Witness the press release that emanated from the beer merchant's South Australian headquarters on Monday afternoon after reports commemorative cans of Coopers Light had been created to celebrate the Bible Society's 200th anniversary and bottles of the stuff subsequently featured in a Bible Society video on the subject of marriage equality featuring the federal MP odd couple of Tim Wilson and Andrew Hastie. 

The revelations (no Bible pun intended) provoked a social media storm – such that by noon on Monday, hipsters and Millennials all over the country were pressing pause on their Get-Up clicktivism and setting aside their top-knot sculpting sessions to post videos online of ritual smashing of Coopers six-packs. Think book burnings but with booze. 

So intense was the social media storm that a statement was issued in which Coopers, rather weakly, said it loved all members of its beer-drinking family – no matter who they chose to love in turn.

Eyebrows, however, were raised in the gay community and among marriage equality proponents, many of whom noted that this latest foray into social conservativism comes hot on the heels of the family-owned brewery withdrawing its sponsorship of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. 

Until June, Coopers had been one of the event's long-standing sponsors. But that association quietly – pointedly – ended. 

The same marriage equality advocates were left to ponder why, in their press release on Monday, Coopers failed to mention it had been a long-term sponsor of the Mardi Gras. Surely, they argued, the best way to disavow the wider community it is neither anti-gay nor anti-marriage equality would be to point out your pink credentials.

Unless, of course, you didn't want to disavow the community of that perception.

As The Advertiser was reporting on Monday, "when launching the Bible Society partnership last Thursday, Coopers managing director Dr Tim Cooper said the company's philanthropic arm, the Coopers Brewery Foundation, supports Christian organisations with Christian values".  

Of course, how much this drama affects Coopers' bottom line is debatable. Apart from a few lesbians with a penchant for Blundstones, no self-respecting homosexual would be caught dead drinking Coopers – much less Coopers Light. 

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