Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki arriving at the aborted Posie Parker speaking event at Albert Park. Photo / Dean Purcell
By NZ Herald
As British activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull sought shelter at Auckland Central Police Station after her Let Women Speak event was derailed by a counter-protest, Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki has begun leading another protest just hundreds of metres away.
Keen-Minshull - who goes by the name Posie Parker and says she is a women’s rights supporter - was rushed from Albert Park where she was meant to speak as part of a two-date New Zealand tour after a member of a counter-protest threw a bottle of tomato sauce over her.
Before she was hit by tomato soup, her attempts to speak were drowned out by the voices, musical instruments and fog horns of counter-protesters.
Keen-Minshull was helped to a waiting police car - with some trans-gender rights supporters trying to push their way through security to get to her - and driven from Albert Park.
Posie Parker is rushed from Albert Park. Photo / Dean Purcell
In a YouTube livestream, she asked the police officer driving the patrol car to take her to a police station as she was concerned about returning to her hotel, as a threatening note had been left under her door.
Counter-protesters have now arrived at Aotea Square, where Destiny Church is holding a rally.
Speakers at the rally are criticising sex education in schools and trans athletes.
About 500 Destiny supporters are at the rally, holding signs which say “Let our kids be kids” and “We represent fed-up families”.
Vision NZ supporters have linked arms to keep counter-protesters, who made their presence felt earlier at Albert Park, out of Aotea Square.
Photo / Dean Purcell
Hundreds of Vision NZ protesters are heading down Queen St. Pro-trans counter-protesters can be heard booing at the marchers.
At some points, pro-trans protesters are walking alongside the Vision NZ group, holding up banners supporting the Takatāpui community.
After gathering at Aotea Square, the Vision NZ and Destiny rally walked down Queen St.
At the bottom of Queen St members performed a haka.
There was also a scuffle between Vision NZ protesters and pro-trans protesters outside Dior.
Prior to the event, Keen-Minshull said she was in New Zealand to “give women who feel gaslit by the state [the ability] to speak about the rights they are losing”.
After the ugly scenes at Albert Park, including physical clashes involving the counter-protesters, she has indicated she may now cancel her Wellington leg of the tour set for Sunday.
In a live Youtube video from the back of the police car she left in, she discusses whether she should travel to the capital.
“Maybe it’s time to say ‘we can’t do it’,” she says.
Keen-Minshull arrived at Auckland Airport last night after a last-ditch court case to block her entry to NZ failed. When asked if she felt safe, Keen-Minshull said she felt New Zealand was “insane”.
She said she expected trans rights activists to be at her event and claimed “men [trans women] would come out. They’ve already threatened to be aggressive.”
Keen-Minshull’s controversial tour has seen her face criticism from politicians and other social commentators for her assertion people cannot change their sex.
She argues she is campaigning for women’s rights - but opponents say her transphobic rhetoric is a threat to trans people’s rights and safety.
