When Kellie-Jay Keen comes to New Zealand, we women will be looking out for each other.
Kellie-Jay Keen is coming to New Zealand! In the second half of March this year, she will bring her ‘Let Women Speak’ tour to Auckland and Wellington¹. We women will be doing our utmost to look after each other during these events². Count on it.
After seeing reports of the appalling behaviour of trans activists when KJK toured America, we are left in no doubt that we have to strongly stand by each other. New Zealand may be a different place to America, but the same trans activists’ behaviours are starting to emerge here, too. And our elders are not exempt from being targetted: a Māori kuia was harassed and intimidated by trans activists one evening, as she was leaving a public talk. This female elder’s story highlights just some of trans activism’s unprincipled behaviours.
This particular harassment and intimidation happened in July 2021, when Speak Up for Women NZ gave a public talk in Wellington as part of a nationwide tour to raise awareness about the then pending sex self-ID bill. The ‘anti-trans’ melodrama about these talks was stoked and amplified by trans activist groups, city councillors, Wellington’s mayor at the time, Andy Foster, some Members of Parliament, and media, both before and after the event³. The talk was about policy, which a few SUFW opposers and trans activists attended here and there. It’s possible they may have been slightly disappointed at how little there was to actually get outraged about, although that didn’t appear to stop them from manufacturing it.
Before Wellington, the Christchurch City Council was the first to bow to pressure from members of a vulnerable community, and declined to hire one of its venues to SUFW. The council then sent letters to those who had applied the pressure to assure them that they were safe.
Another venue was found in Christchurch, and the talk went ahead. Meantime, other councils scrambled to cancel SUFW from their venues, too, but a timely High Court ruling prevented them from legally doing so. Hence, the Wellington City Council was forced to honour SUFW’s booking at the prestigious Michael Fowler Centre. In a fit of pique, the WCC decided to light up the building in the baby pink and blue trans colours on the night. The lighting didn’t seem entirely successful.
The above picture is of the Mayor of Wellington, two councillors, one councillor’s child, and a handful of the 300 - 400 who gathered outside the Michael Fowler Centre to protest the talk by SUFW.
The protestors got stoked up by all the usual rhetoric on the night (although other substances were also suspected to have helped fuel it). To start with, they were held back by security, and the doors to the building were locked after the talk began in order to keep them out. Once the talk finished, however, the fired-up protesters were on hand to harass and intimidate as the attendees left by any exit.
Leaving a little before the question time had finished at the end of the talk, a Māori kuia walking to her car in the disabled carpark space was amongst the first to cop this. Aroha (not her real name) walks with the aid of a stick much of the time, and whilst not using it on this particular evening, leaves no doubt to the observer that she is not completely able-bodied. Still, the trans activists surrounded her and inhibited her progress towards her car, yelling and waving their signs at her all the while. Not being a wilting violet, she let them have it right back and kept walking. Once there, they surrounded her car as she got inside, still yelling and waving their signs. They wouldn’t disperse, so she revved her car at them, which made them finally start backing away, and she was able to leave. Aroha had come with her sisters and friend, who were confronting the trans activists elsewhere. She drew up alongside them so they could get into the car as well, and they finally managed to all safely depart for home.
There were men at that talk, too, but I didn’t hear any reports of them being directly harassed and intimidated by the protest mob. However, the young (trans-identifying) male leader of a ‘queer’ group claimed he was slapped by a middle-aged woman before the talk. This was initially made much of by media⁴, but then went quiet after varying reports about it emerged.
Harassment and intimidation on isolated women by a mob is cowardly, especially on disabled women and/or our female elders. We were caught unaware that time by not expecting the trans activists to be so unprincipled in their behaviour. Fool us once, maybe, but not again. To reiterate, when Kellie-Jay Keen comes to New Zealand on her ‘Let Women Speak’ tour in the second half of March this year, we be doing our utmost to protect and look out for each other. Count on it.
¹Christchurch was initially named as one of the two cities in New Zealand for KJK to come to, but that was later changed to Wellington. Details of the events in both cities will be made available in due course. I will post them here, and Speak Up for Women NZ’s Facebook page will also advise of the details as they become known to them.
² Some men have committed themselves to this, too.
I never cease to be amazed at how clever the trans lobby is at promoting their own "victimhood". Let's see, which is more intimidating? A bunch of women (many of them obviously past the first flush of youth) publicly speaking vs. (usually a larger crowd) of trans rights supporters carrying banners that advocate killing and raping women, many of whom are obviously male bodied and not easily identified because they are wearing balaclavas or masks (deliberately hiding). What stunning bravery to deliberately harass women; you go guys. I hope your mums are really proud of you.
thank you. am so looking forward to the auckland event. kellie jay is a complete goddess.