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Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, also known as Posie Parker, is an anti-trans rights activist from the UK. She planned an anti-trans rally in Auckland on March 25, where thousands of counter-protestors gathered at the venue, prompting the activist to decide to leave the country.
She stated she was leaving New Zealand due to the chaotic rally, which disrupted her planned Let Women Speak campaign.
Previously, Parker has described herself as a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist). She has visited several Australian cities including Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Perth, and others with her anti-trans campaign.
Parker had embarked on her New Zealand tour, but the backlash from the locals in Auckland proved to be too powerful for her event to continue.
According to the New Zealand Herald, more than 2,000 counter-protestors assembled together beforehand at the spot where Posie Parker was scheduled to hold her campaign. The protestors aimed to drown out Parker’s anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.
Posie Parker's gender-critical campaigning
Posie Parker is the founder of the group Standing for Women. She has used billboards, stickers, posters, and social media platforms to promote anti-trans messages. The activist has also organized several campaigns in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and New Zealand.
The British activist has claimed to be a women’s rights activist. She rose to infamy in 2018 after it was reported that she was interrogated by police over alleged comments made about the chief executive of Mermaids, Susie Green, and her transgender daughter.
Mermaids is an organization that advocates for trans youths. Since then, Parker has been widely labeled an anti-transgender activist.
That same year, she made a series of anti-Muslim tweets, leading an anti-gender self-identification group called Women’s Place UK, to distance itself from Parker. The group withdrew from a meeting where she was due to speak.
In 2019, it was reported that Sarah McBride, the then-US national press secretary for Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT+ organization was misgendered and harassed by Posie Parker in a meeting in Washington, DC.
Kellie-Jean Keen-Minshull, who is a wife and a mother of four, rose to be a key figure in the anti-trans movement against the United Kingdom’s Gender Recognition Act and has since led rallies and campaigns on both sides of the Atlantic.
Posie Parker had to use the help of local police to get through counter-protesters
Livestream footage of the counter-protest rally was shared online. A humongous crowd was seen with trans rights and LGBTQ+ flags, placards, and banners. LGBTQ+ activities and allies were seen chanting pro-trans messages. Drums and other loud instruments were being played to stop Parker’s event from taking place.
After Parker arrived at the designated rally point in a park gazebo, she was immediately attacked with tomato juice by a counter-protestor who was standing nearby. A few anti-trans protesters in support of Parker’s campaign were present at the location.
When Parker got drenched in tomato juice, and the counter-protest started becoming too loud for her to proceed on her own, she was heard saying on the live stream:
“We can’t do this. Unless the police come, we can’t do this.”
When the pro-trans crowd holding signs of LGBTQ+ solidarity began to gather around the gazebo, Parker’s bodyguards told them to get out of there. The activist remarked amidst the chaos:
“This is what happens, look at the f**king state of these f**king people.”
She also told one counter-protestor to go f**k themselves. The activist stood there for several minutes, and the crowd of pro-LGBTQ+ protestors started growing by then, forcing Posie Parker to cancel her event.
With the help of local cops, she was able to push through the crowd of counter-protesters.
After Parker exited the venue, pro-trans activists reportedly took over the gazebo and started sharing speeches in solidarity with transgender people. They also drew pro-trans messages with chalks on the park pavement.
Posie Parker announced her decision to cancel the scheduled event in Wellington and would return home to the UK.
Aside from her anti-trans campaign, Parker’s events have also been criticized in the past for their associations with neo-Nazi groups. Several far-right groups were spotted along with Parker’s gender-critical followers giving the Nazi salute at one of her rallies in Melbourne on March 18.
Similarly, during her Auckland protest, some of the protesters were pictured sporting apparel associated with far-right European groups.
