Opinion: I went along to the Posie Parker counter-protest on Saturday with my friend and colleague Lloyd Burr.
I felt enormously proud to be part of such an enormous group of people standing up for what’s right - human rights. The rights of people to be themselves, love who they love and not be targeted by misguided, hate-fueled anger and abuse.
I was there, as a woman and a feminist who is pro-women - all women including trans women.
I was there for a shared kaupapa that says no to stirring up fear and hysteria designed to marginalise a group of people.
As with any large group of people, there are going to be a range of emotions, levels of feeling, and different methods of achieving the shared goal of the group - which in this case was making it clear that Posie Parker’s discriminatory anti-trans message is not welcome.
I’m not here to defend the methods of everyone at that protest. As I’m sure - I hope - that Brian Tamaki wouldn’t defend his thugs who nearly punched me when I tried to help a young protester they’d pushed to the ground and looked primed to kick in the head on the concrete of Queen Street.
And like Posie Parker doesn’t publicly defend the neo nazis who always rock up to support her rallies.
And nothing I saw from the counter-protesters was even remotely akin to those examples.
What I took away from Saturday was an enormous heart that people came out in force to stand up for one another, to stand up against hate.
Posie Parker tries to tell us she’s on the right side of history.
But history tells us that - despite our enduring and sometimes painful struggles - it lands on the side of protecting people’s rights.
In this case the rights of trans people.
And to all those people who are rushing to their keyboards to tell me it’s about women’s rights - the same people who have criticised me in the past for being too pro-women, too much of a feminist but who have now suddenly become staunch defenders of women rights - you’ve got to ask yourself why are you so fixated by some else’s genitals, by their identity, by their lives which probably aren’t even going to intersect with your lives, certainly not in any way you’d even really know about or need to know about.
It’s about respect and rights for everyone and we showed over the weekend that more people care about that in Aotearoa than hate.
