New Zealand parents of children affected by transgender ideation now have the benefit of their own chapter, having previously been catered for by our Australian branch.
A message from our New Zealand representative:
Hello,
We moved here a few years ago with our two teenagers, I am English and have a kiwi husband. Our children have several friends who are caught up in trans ideation which is distressing to witness, not least because their generation seems cool with it! I have found that all I can do is to make it crystal clear to my children how damaging a movement it is, in the hope that my words ring in their ears during conversations with their friends.
Having met many kiwis over the years and finding them mostly to be no-nonsense types, I was surprised to find that trans ideation has firmly taken hold here. With puberty blocker use high among kiwi teenagers, at a rate 10 times that of the UK, I was further surprised to note the mainstream media’s silence on the issue. I’m sure this has not helped families in their need to access crucial information on navigating their child through and, hopefully, out of this harmful trend.
I joined a New Zealand women’s group on Facebook to help them fight back against the erosion of women’s hard-won rights by raising awareness and trying to break through the media silence. Our task was made significantly easier on 25 March 2023 when Kellie Jay Keen brought her Let Women Speak tour to New Zealand with the first event at Albert Park and, overnight, kiwi awareness was raised! Over the course of the next few days, the Facebook women’s group received almost 200 applications for membership. Media silence was breached and the era of ‘no debate’ was over.
I have a law background so I was enlisted as a legal observer on the day. The head marshall had received several assurances over the course of the previous weeks that police would be present to deal with any trouble, but nothing could have prepared us for the huge number of trans rights activists (est. between 2 and 3,000) that had arrived with the intention to drown out the speeches of Kellie-Jay and the women, by any means necessary. About 100 middle aged women and their supporters stood inside a flimsy tape barrier with a few metres gap between them and a series of unlinked metal barriers. The gap was intended for the police but they were nowhere in sight.
I had intended to go by myself that day but my husband insisted on going with me. When we arrived, I spoke to the head marshall and asked her where the police were. She said she had tried calling them but couldn’t get a response. She was very stressed. The noise was becoming deafening and this escalated when Kellie Jay arrived to take her place on the rotunda. I saw her briefly and then realised she had been doused in some red liquid (which we now know was tomato soup). At that point, we all knew the police weren’t coming and so did the TRAs. They pushed the metal barriers aside with ease and started moving forward.
If I had been there by myself I would’ve stayed with the other women, but my husband said we had to go. He was right but I will always feel guilty about that. Some of the women were hurt, including the head marshall whose foot was broken, but I know I might’ve been hurt too if I had stayed.
Like many others, I was surprised to see how much support the trans movement has in New Zealand but Kellie Jay’s visit teased them out of the woodwork. The true extent of trans ideation can no longer be denied by the media or dismissed as a fringe issue by politicians and I will write as many emails or fill in as many forms as is necessary to keep the pressure on. I will help Our Duty in any way I can to guide kiwi families through this.
