JULY 2024
Tania Sturt
Recently I went to a ticketed event to hear a talk given by a woman visiting from Australia. She was discussing a legal case that she has been embroiled in for a few years, whereby her attempt at building a business venture has been paused because the policies of that business were considered discriminatory, and a stakeholder was sufficiently affronted that a legal case ensued.
It was interesting stuff; she’s an engaging and passionate speaker and businesswoman. However, not everyone found her so interesting or thought that the audience should be allowed to hear her. We had a now familiar contingent find out the venue location, and attempt to disrupt the event with noise, chants, and banging on the doors. I use the phrase “now familiar” because this happens every time certain women choose to gather and talk amongst themselves. Every. Time.
I know this because I’m often there – most notably I was there at Albert Park in March 2023 for the Let Women Speak event. I was there when I was doused in tomato juice beside Kellie-Jay Keen. I was there when, in the effort of helping get Kellie-Jay out of an unbridled riot, I was taken to the ground and beaten up. I was there when I managed to get myself up off the ground and out of the mob. I was there when I was harassed walking out of Albert Park alone. I was most certainly there when I screamed at the police officers loitering on the edge of the crowd chatting amongst themselves with not a care in the world, completely ignoring the violence and intimidation that women had been subjected to right in front of them. My crime for incurring a physical assault and harassment? I’m a terf.
Before and after Albert Park, I’ve organised other events. And every time the police need to be notified. Every time protesters attend. Most of the events consist of women taking turns speaking into a microphone and to each other. And every time the protesters intent is to silence us. They believe we speak with hate; we wish to incite genocide and we want to erase them from existence. We believe we talk about medical malpractice, scientific research, loss of linguistic empowerment, and women losing our legal rights to single sex spaces. They believe they protest for trans joy, love and inclusivity. We believe they protest out of fear of the truth and anger that women are getting uppity, obstructing men from entering our spaces.
We may never agree.
Protesters aside, what are the police doing now to protect women’s rights to associate peacefully? Rushing to stand by whenever we need them, still slightly shamefaced about the Albert Park debacle, determinedly facing a screeching sea of pink, white and blue with the full force of decades of legislation behind them? Well, no, not really. An online report and advice to ring 111 if things get messy is about as thin as a blue line can get. Personally, I push for more assistance (and to give credit where its due, the police collaboration for September 2023 Let Women Speak was a chef’s kiss). But why do we need to push? Maybe because, as with a South Island rally I co-organised, some off-duty police officers were reportedly also attending the rally – to protest us. Is this gender ideology so successfully planted in government organisations that this is now the new frontier of acceptable oppression? And what does that say about our country and any others facing the same upheaval? I don’t believe we as a country can really see ourselves as progressive if the powers that be ride rough-shod over the rights of half the population. We keep being told that rights aren’t a pie but it’s really not the height of progression to keep smashing that pie in women’s faces under the guise of trans joy.
Either we live in a society that allows women to have sociopolitical opinions, or we don’t. Either we live in a society where women can peacefully associate together without harassment, abuse and violence, or we don’t. There is no nuance here. And if we don’t live in that society, then please point me in the direction of the legislation that states that; I’ll get a railing to chain myself to.
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