Posie Parker to leave New Zealand after counter-protestors overwhelm anti-trans rally
Posie Parker was forced to exit her event early following the backlash. (Twitter/@mfwitches)
Due to thousands of counter-protestors overwhelming Posie Parker’s planned Auckland rally, she has reportedly decided to leave the country.
The anti-trans pundit, who is also known as Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, has said she is leaving New Zealand following the chaotic rally, which was planned as part of her Let Women Speak campaign.
So far Keen-Minshull, who has previously described herself as a TERF, brought the anti-gender rally to Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart and several other Australian cities.
She was set to continue her tour in New Zealand, but the backlash by Auckland locals proved too great for the event to go ahead.
NZ Herald reported that more than 2,000 counter-protestors joined together prior to the event taking place in order to drown out Keen-Minshull’s anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.
Livestream footage showed the sheer size of the crowd, with LGBTQ+ activists and allies chanting pro-trans messages while playing the drums and other loud instruments to help stop the event from taking place.
Following her arrival at the designated rally point in a nearby park gazebo – where a tiny number of ‘gender critical’ protestors and bodyguards stood – Keen-Minshull was almost immediately doused in tomato juice by a nearby counter-protestor.
“We can’t do this,” she could be heard saying during the live stream. “Unless the police come, we can’t do this.”
The crowd, which held signs of LGBTQ+ solidarity, then began to gather around the gazebo, with bodyguards telling them to “get out of here”.
“This is what happens, look at the f**king state of these f**king people,” Keen-Minshull remarked while telling a counter-protestor to “go f**k yourself”.
After several minutes of standing around an ever-growing crowd of pro-LGBTQ+ counter-protesters, Keen-Minshull was forced to cancel the event, having to push through the counter-protests with the help of local police.
Following her exit, activists reportedly took the gazebo and began sharing speeches of trans solidarity while drawing pro-trans messages with chalk on the park pavement.
Keen-Minshull announced on social media that she would be cancelling the event in Wellington and heading back to the UK, saying that the “advice was to go home”.
Aside from the anti-trans rhetoric promoted by Keen-Minshull, her event has also been criticised for its association with neo-nazi groups.
Several far-right groups were seen with ‘gender-critical’ pundits giving the Nazi salute at her rally in Melbourne on 18 March.
Similarly, during the Auckland protest, a small number of individuals wearing apparel associated with far-right European groups were pictured, allegedly associating with the ‘gender-critical’ group.
Several politicians across Australia and New Zealand have heavily criticised both the rallies and the neo-Nazi groups as a result.
Australian premier of Victoria Dan Andrews slammed far-right and neo-Nazi ideology as “evil” and not welcome in Australia.
Meanwhile, Australian senator and stepfather of a trans son Nick McKim told Keen-Minshull and the ‘gender-critical’ group to “get in the bin“.
In a Twitter thread, trans activist Aidan Comerford accused the anti-trans pundit of working “with anyone to defeat trans rights, and she means anyone”.
In response to the accusations of associating with neo-Nazi groups, Keen-Minshull told PinkNews following her Melbourne protest that none of the far-right groups were actually at the rally.
“No men dressed in black block who gave Nazi salutes were at the Let Women Speak rally.
“Standing For Women campaigns for the rights of women and the safeguarding of children,” she said. “Nazis are abhorrent, no right-minded person sides with Nazis. They have absolutely nothing to do with Let Women Speak.”
Her campaign is set to continue in April with a tour across Ireland, including in Dublin and Belfast, though it is unclear whether this will go ahead.
