Laws enacted in Tasmania to promote equality have backfired on all of us, writes Isla MacGregor
Last week I attended the Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull Let Women Speak event on the Parliament House lawns in Hobart in the hope of listening to women speak about the impacts of gender identity laws on their basic rights and freedoms.
On the rights of lesbians, mothers, daughters and grandmothers and all our community. On the right to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and the right to protest. On the rights to dignity and safety, and on the right to participate in fair and open debates.
What I witnessed was a fundamental assault on these basic freedoms by a group of pro-transgender rights activists who were joined by Greens leader Cassy O’Connor and Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff.
What I witnessed was an aggressive counter-protest by pro-transgender rights activists to an event planned to give women the opportunity to hear from a women’s rights activist and founder of the group Standing for Women and for Tasmanian women to speak.
What I witnessed was the failure by those who were there to keep the peace, to maintain a safe buffer zone between the two opposing groups of pro- and anti-transgender activists, as well as a failure to stop acts of severe bullying, harassment, verbal abuse and threats directed at those who attended the rally.
Many who attended the Speak Up For Women event made repeated requests to members of Tasmania Police to maintain law and order and for protection.
Mark Shelton, Speaker of the House, had granted Equality Tasmania a permit to hold their protest in the Gladstone quadrant of the Parliament House lawns.
I believe Mr Shelton made a gross error of judgment in providing a permit for Equality Tasmania on the same day as the Speak Up For Women event.
I believe the Equality Tasmania counter-demonstration was simply organised intimidation directed against people’s right of assembly and freedom of speech.
At no time did I witness Equality Tasmania marshals attempt to contain their protesters from breaching their permit conditions.
Pro-transgender rights activists made it impossible for the speakers on the opposing side to make themselves heard due to loud screams and constant shouting.
The transgender rights activists also made it impossible for the Let Women Speak rally attendees to remain in their permitted area as the pro-transgender activists constantly pushed them back right up onto the steps entering Parliament House.
Never before have Tasmanians witnessed such a protest — which I believe attacked women’s rights to freedom of speech, assembly and protest.
I was personally threatened with violence, verbally abused, assaulted and threatened with defamation. Other people were allegedly spat on, sworn at, and shouted at.
The Let Women Speak event did go ahead last week, but many women were too afraid to speak and feared they would not be heard over the screaming.
Last week’s event, recorded and filmed by a large contingent of journalists and camera crews, is a wake-up call to Tasmanians and Australians.
Laws enacted in Tasmania to promote equality have backfired on all of us.
As was witnessed by many last week, the so-called advocates for inclusivity and diversity have put on public display just how intolerant, aggressive and hate-driven some can be.
The debate Tasmanians finally want to have is over laws that have been enacted and are now being used to erase the words “mother,” “daughter,” and “breastfeeding,” and to redefine what a woman is, to include men.
Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull is right — it’s time women spoke up and were listened to.
Isla MacGregor is a member of the group Women Speak Tasmania.
Published in The Mercury 27th march 2023