Trans woman kicked out of queer liberation conference for listening too passively
“But there is not only doubt about mystical things; not even only about moral things. There is most doubt of all about rational things. I do not mean that I feel these doubts, either rational or mystical; but I mean that a sufficient number of modern people feel them to make unanimity an absurd assumption. Reason was self-evident before Pragmatism. Mathematics were self-evident before Einstein. But this scepticism is throwing thousands into a condition of doubt, not about occult but about obvious things. We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four, in which furious party cries will be raised against anybody who says that cows have horns, in which people will persecute the heresy of calling a triangle a three-sided figure, and hang a man for maddening a mob with the news that grass is green.” — GK Chesterton, 1926
On Saturday the 1st of June 2024, ‘Pride In Protest’ held a queer liberation conference called Provocations, near the Sydney CBD in Australia. Their Facebook event states that, “Everyone is welcome”. Well okay I thought, I should attend to listen. They want to be listened to, right?
Pride In Protest’s Facebook page states that they’re a grassroots political organisation focusing on queer liberation. And from what I’ve seen, they’ve been shameless in their protest tactics in Sydney. For example, at the 2024 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, they infamously clashed with police in an allegedly unauthorised Oxford Street protest on the night prior to the Parade. So much so that after the event, Independent State Member of Parliament, Alex Greenwich, pleaded with Pride In Protest not to “take the Mardi Gras parade away from us”.
“It is just so unfortunate that we are seeing a relatively small group of people within our community seek to stoke conflict and division and I ask them; please let us have our Mardi Gras parade tonight, let us celebrate, let us heal. Let’s not use this an as opportunity for any political stunts.”
This protest involved road-blocking, they must really really want to be listened to. I turned up to Provocations slightly but fashionably late. The first agenda item was “Sovereignty Now: Where To Next After The ‘Voice’?”, including a panel where they had Senator Lidia Thorpe on Zoom. So what does queer liberation have to do with issues such as the 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum? I’ve relistened to the panel on their newly released Spotify podcast episode so that you don’t have to, and here are some key italicised quotes:
“There were a lot of division caused by the Referendum last year, it wasn’t a Referendum that we’d asked for, it was something that was forced upon us… a lot of the divisions were [coming from] predominantly White political groups…” (3 and 4:20 minute mark)
Something I think these activists and ‘No’ campaigners may agree on, probably from different angles though.
“Listen to Elders, doesn’t matter if you’re Left or you’re Right… You look at so many political groups now and there’s no indigenous groups in them because they don’t feel comfortable being in those spaces… ultimately what the biggest problem… is that even amongst Elders… we have so many different views… [and] the current Western Left”… accept token voices, they don’t accept Black voices…” (4:50 and 7:55 mark)
I note with interest that this is being said at an inner-city queer liberation conference.
Senator Thorpe: “We need to go back to our families and our clans and our tribes, and we need to build our families up, to have their voice… we don’t need politicians for that, and we don’t need money for that… Don’t believe everything Noel Pearson says…” (9:50 mark)
Well, as a Christian, I’m on board with rebuilding families. But is this really a Christian-like conference?
“Our governance systems have survived in this country for over 80,000 years… This is a part of a global uprising in terms of the impact of climate change… These are all intersected issues… White people need to have a think about, non-indigenous people need to have a think about what they’ve inherited in terms of their privilege and power, and actually do something about that… Queer rights are intersected with indigenous rights…” (12:05 mark)
Isn’t it 60,000 years ago?
“All of yous support Palestine, right? How many of yous, would campaign or advocate for… the Palestinians to be known as the indigenous Israelis, and for them to have a powerless advisory body to the Israeli government? Yet so many people campaigned for that exact thing for us last year… The Settler Left here in Australia isn’t for Aboriginal sovereignty… But when it boils down to it in terms of giving up… power and privilege, White people don’t actually want to cede that…” (17:30 and 19:50 mark)
Well real estate, amongst other things, is pretty expensive here in Australia. Stupid people exist, but not many.
Senator Thorpe:“If those language groups want to have a treaty at the local, State, Federal and international level, then that’s something that they need to self-determine for themselves, as long as there is free and informed consent, and our rights are adhered to, and that a treaty can be torn up if it doesn’t suit our people… it’s got to include reparations… and that’s where we should be heading as a nation… and causing mental harm to our people every day is another element of genocide.” (22:25 mark)
I hope she knows that this statement is not realistic. She is a politician after all.
“For the vast majority of people, they won’t want to give up their comfort in their current lives. We are facing a cost of living crisis… unless there is a massive shake-up, and a massive change in Australia, [treaty] isn’t going to be happening for decades… we can think about treaty, but we also need to kinda think about… other options…” (25:11 and 37:40 mark)
Other options? Peaceful options?
“If the Palestinians can do it, why can’t we? If Palestine will one day be free… why can’t indigenous Australia be free? Why can’t First Nations Australia be free?… We need to notice that what is happening in Palestine has happened to us, as well, and we need that intersectionality… A lot of the people that attend these protests, are able to look at Palestine, and see it as a far away thing, and not realise that they are also settlers…” (48:35 and 50:30 mark)
It makes you wonder what these people’s views are on immigration policy.
“Did you know that the descendants of convicts… are less than 20% of the population here today?… We don’t have to capitulate and accommodate and appease these so-called White Australian settlers, ’cause they’re actually a minority themselves on this continent. And it’s so easy for us to actually overthrow them, and overthrow the power that they hold onto. We just need to believe that we can.” (55:35 mark)
Racist. Very racist. And I say that as a non-White Australian. I suppose the logic though is that if it’s intersectional, it’s not racist?
“There cannot be freedom for black people unless there’s freedom for all oppressed peoples across this planet… the queer movement, black rights movement, pretty much all of these movements, we’re all operating under the same framework, and that is one that is White-centred, male-centred, hetero-centred, cisgender-centred… it’s so funny because it’s such a small subsection of the population… [this is] why we need intersectionalism… disadvantage for one is disadvantage for all… If you’re not fighting for indigenous people, you’re also not fighting for queer people.” (1:12:40, 1:14:15 and 1:20:10 mark)
This is a lazy justification for grabbing power.
“We really need to up the organising on this continent… the only way that you can stop Australia doing what it does, providing the arms, and the resources, and the logistics and whatever else it is to Israel… is to cause a domestics crisis here, so that Australia does not have the capacity to engage in stuff that’s happening abroad… I’m not just talking about protests on Sundays… I’m talking about actually physically materially disrupting the war machine, stuff that admittedly most people aren’t actually ready for or down for… at the end of the day, we need to go and actually physically destroy weapons factories.” (1:37:55 mark)
Is the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation listening in? Once this two-hour agenda item was done, it was group photo time, and yes, I joined in to not look like a party pooper. It didn’t matter in the end anyway, because once that was done, a mob of seven or eight uni students slowly descended on me. (I was cropped out of the photo when it was posted on Facebook)
They recognised me as a counter-protester, the experience of which I provided in some detail in several Spectator Australia articles last year. I was asked what I was doing at Provocations. I emphasised on numerous occasions that I’m there to listen. Apparently me listening is too passive, I thought about explaining to them what active listening is, then realised they wouldn’t get it anyway, since the avalanche of abuse included:
“You’re a TERF, what are you doing here?”
Me thinking: Actually I’m a Trans-Inclusionary Radical Feminist (TIRF). And it’s generally not good manners accusing a trans woman (or any woman for that matter) for being a TERF.
“You were at the Day Of The Unborn at St Mary’s Cathedral counter-protesting us! Unless you’ve had a ‘come to Jesus’ moment you’re not welcome here!”
Me thinking: Well, I’ve come to Jesus, so naturally I am pro-life. What a surprise.
“You were yelling at the Christian Lives Matter protest [in 2023]!”
Me thinking: Actually what happened was that I spoke at the rally holding a ‘I’m trans — drag queens are not for kids’ protest sign, and someone from the crowd was so angry at my sign that he yanked it off me and scrunched it up in front of everyone.
“Isn’t she the Libertarian bitch?”
Me thinking: That’s trans-misogynistic!
In the ‘me thinking’ moments, I knew arguing would only escalate, you’d think me quietly listening to them is a good enough reason for me to attend, but apparently I needed to have experienced a 180 degree in my politics prior to attending Provocations. I asked what if I had a 120 degree instead? Not good enough I was told! So much for queer liberation.
A bunch of uni students surrounding me doesn’t scare me, but I didn’t want to end up wasting local police’s time on these children trying to kick me out for listening too passively. So I left, and as I was leaving, I was told my dress was embarrassing. It was a modest dress I bought from a shop whose customers are mainly Muslim women. Is intersectionality Islamophobic now?
Funny how they were exercising their private property rights. And what else did I learn from these road-blocking Mardi Gras party poopers? It’s not about queer liberation, it’s not about being listened to, it’s about “causing a domestic crisis”. Your move ASIO.