Posie Parker, a women’s rights campaigner branded a ‘TERF’ by transgender activists and their allies, said police told her she was “lucky to be alive” after being attacked at a rally in New Zealand.
Parker, real name Kellie-Jay Keen Minshull, is a noted ‘TERF’ — a pejorative term standing for ‘Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist’ — who has earned the wrath of the trans lobby with her outspoken commentary against transition treatment for children and allowing biologically male transwomen into women-only spaces, among other “hate speech”.
She was in Antipodes as part of her ‘Let Women Speak’ tour, which attracted a substantial number of supporters but also large numbers of aggressive pro-trans activists, encouraged to protest her events by celebrity leftists such as Billy Bragg.
One such protest in Auckland drew some 2,000 demonstrators, according to The New Zealand Herald, which reported barriers erected to separate the factions torn down and “skirmishes” with Parker’s supporters, as well as a protester rushing the stage where she was attempting to speak and dousing her and a security guard with what thankfully turned out to be juice.
Parker ultimately abandoned the event, saying she spent “most of my day with the protection of police who genuinely believed I was lucky to be alive”, cancelling a subsequent event which had been planned in Wellington and flying out of the country.
Just blown into Adelaide for 3 shows at the Gov. Appalled to find UK anti-trans activist Kellie-Jay Keen is coming to SA to stir up division. Not only anti-trans, she also accepts support from US anti-abortionists. Be a trans ally – protest her presence! pic.twitter.com/CdDvUlttkZ
— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) March 3, 2023
In a lengthy social media post, the activist said she has been the subject of a “long campaign to assassinate my character, started by a group of jealous spiteful women in the UK, that I had ambitions besides stopping the mutilation of children and the erasure of women’s rights.”
She said the “lies” about her had been “slurped up by ravenous porn sick men and their transmaidens” before eventually being “spewed by politicians in power in Australia and New Zealand [and] boosted by a corrupt media populated by vile dishonest unskilled cult members.”
“The powerful are seeking to silence us, we must continue to speak. They are afraid of us,” she insisted.
Speak Up For Women, which backed Parker’s attempted tour, said it “thank[ed] Mrs Keen-Minshull for having the courage to come to New Zealand and showing up in Albert Park today, despite receiving multiple death threats and threats of violence in the last week,” and said it would be “gathering witness statements and laying a formal complaint with the Independent Police Conduct Authority about the lack of police action to prevent violence in what was clearly an increasingly volatile situation.”
The New Zealand authorities appeared to have made no arrests related to the disorder in Auckland as of the time of publication.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling, now the world’s most famous ‘TERF’, also denounced the “repellent scenes from New Zealand, in which a mob assaulted women speaking up for their rights” on Twitter, and retweeted another user who said of the pro-trans protesters: “No one will ever believe your crocodile tears again. You’re not oppressed. You’re not in fear for your life. You’re bullying and intimidating women who don’t buy your anti-science, anti-reason mantras and male entitlement. You’ve shown the world your true colours. We see you.”
No one will ever believe your crocodile tears again. You’re not oppressed. You’re not in fear for your life. You’re bullying and intimidating women who don’t buy your anti-science, anti-reason mantras and male entitlement. You’ve shown the world your true colours. We see you. https://t.co/hDD2Cm5gZQ
— Hassan Mamdani (@HassanMamdani) March 25, 2023