Posie Parker (also known as Kellie-Jay Keen), a far-right transphobic activist from the UK, is touring Australia in February and March. The National Union of Students has called a series of demonstrations against her and her followers. 
Parker’s speaking tour, “<a href="https://www.binary.org.au/australian_let_women_speak_tour">Let Women Speak</a>”, has explicitly transphobic premises. It is claimed to bring people together from across “the political spectrum, ethnic backgrounds, socio-economic backgrounds”, united by the conviction “that women are adult human females—not a costume, not a feeling or a drug to be dependent on”. 
The organisation sponsoring this tour, Binary Australia, is a <a href="https://www.starobserver.com.au/news/national-news/anti-marriage-equality-org-rebrands-as-anti-trans-group-binary-australia/173664">rebranded version</a> of the Marriage Alliance, a homophobic coalition that campaigned against same-sex marriage. 
Since 2018, Parker has gained a following by campaigning against the rights of transgender women. She is the founder of the group “Standing for Women”, which opposes civil rights protections for gender identity, as well as laws and policies that allow transgender people to be legally recognised as their gender, to use public facilities according to their gender and to compete in sports. She also campaigns against the use of trans health care like puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy. 
Parker is a member of the Hands Across the Aisle Coalition, a group that aims to build political connections and relationships between prominent transphobic celebrities and public figures (including the author J.K. Rowling), and the far right. 
She has appeared on radio and television alongside the Proud Boys, Capitol Hill rioters and Hans Lysglimt Johansen, a far-right Hungarian politician, Holocaust denier and Islamophobe. Parker has defended far-right activist Tommy Robinson, claimed Trump represents the lesser evil in American politics and teamed up with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative anti-LGBT think tank, to campaign against including sexual orientation and gender identity in US civil rights law. 
Her myriad links to racist, homophobic and sexist far-right figures and groups puts paid to the idea that there is something progressive about Parker’s supposed concerns for women. Hers is just the latest manifestation of a long-standing tendency amongst the right to justify reactionary politics under the pretext of protecting (some) women. For instance, the far right historically has mobilised concerns over white women’s safety to justify the racist treatment of people of colour. 
Parker’s transphobia is not isolated; she is just one representation of a growing current of far right and fascist politics mobilised around the issue. Far-right activists in the UK, for example, recently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/11/tate-britain-protest-drag-queen-childrens-storytelling-event-arrest">disrupted</a> a drag queen storytelling event for children held at the Tate museum. Similarly, plans by neo-Nazis to protest a drag event last December in Melbourne led to its <a href="https://www.starobserver.com.au/news/drag-event-in-melbourne-postponed-after-protests-threats-from-neo-nazis/219103">cancellation</a>. 
This fringe, militant transphobia is in turn being emboldened by the mainstreaming of anti-trans politics, particularly in the US and UK. Just last month, the Westminster parliament for the first time used its veto power to <a href="https://socialistworker.co.uk/news/resist-tory-move-to-block-scotland-gender-recognition-reform/">block legislation</a> passed by the Scottish parliament that would have made it easier for trans people to have their preferred gender recognised in official documents. Meanwhile, this year alone Republican-dominated state legislatures have proposed almost <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-going-on-with-the-wave-of-gop-bills-about-trans-teens-utah-provides-clues-199851">200 bills</a> designed to curtail trans rights, including access to gender-affirming medical interventions. 
Australia has largely avoided the growth of a reactionary anti-trans movement. But if bigots like Parker are allowed to come here and organise unchallenged, a similar movement could develop. Such a movement would not be only about attacking trans people, but about actively recruiting to and building a far-right political current that aims to erode the rights of all the oppressed and drive politics to the right. 
We need to organise a serious left-wing response to Parker—one that places the fight for trans rights alongside the fight for women’s rights, demoralises the far-right freaks and starts to build the radical political current needed to push back against the oppression and bigotry capitalism continues to create.

Jacqueline Blackburn

Maria Dabbas

Why we need to protest Posie Parker

Vigils will be held around Australia on 2 November following a deadly assault on Noongar-Yamatji teenager Cassius Turvey in Perth’s eastern suburbs on 13 October.
15-year-old Cassius Turvey died from head injuries on 23 October, ten days after allegedly being beaten with a metal pole by a man who had jumped out of a black Ford Ranger ute. Turvey was walking home from school with his friends in Middle Swan at the time of the alleged assault.
Turvey’s family <a href="https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/cassius-was-allegedly-chased-and-bashed-with-a-metal-pole-he-died-aged-15-the-victim-of-a-vigilante-murder-20221027-p5btkx.html">told</a> WA Today that he and his friends was falsely accused by the alleged assailant of smashing a car window the previous day. Additionally, Turvey’s friends allege that they were racially abused by the assailant and the ute driver.
On 25 October, Western Australian police charged Jack Steven James Brearley with Turvey’s murder. Three days later, police added charges of aggravated assault occasioning bodily harm and stealing, alleging Brearley also hit a 13-year-old friend of Turvey with a metal pole, and stole the boy’s crutches and cap.
However, police commissioner Col Blanch has angered Noongar community leaders by downplaying racism as a potential factor in the alleged assaults. In an <a href="https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/alleged-murder-of-cassius-turvey-clearly-racially-motivated-says-albanese-20221028-p5btv5.html">open letter</a>, published on 28 October by WA Today, they wrote,
“Cassius was not ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’. He was in his school uniform with his friends in broad daylight.
They set upon him with weapons.
We want our children to stand up to racism. It’s very real in this community. We must respond to this as a Hate crime. That’s what it was.
The Premier and Police Commissioner are telling us to be quiet. We know attacks on our children are real. They are minimizing this horrific killing of young Cassius. This is wrong and dangerous especially as our people are not selected for juries.
We as a Noongar Nation are outraged by this mindless, inhumane, cowardly racist act against an innocent child. We call on Government to meet us now.”
Cassius Turvey’s grieving mother, Mechelle Turvey, <a href="https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/alleged-murder-of-cassius-turvey-clearly-racially-motivated-says-albanese-20221028-p5btv5.html">told</a> WA Today. “I’m heartbroken for my son; 15 years of age; for no reason, I have lost him ... I’m just appalled at some of the violence going on in our communities.”
A <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/justiceforcassius?qid=62bd65af26f20f574dee3e3f84c21702" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">GoFundMe</a> page established Cassius' family to pay for funeral and legal costs, as well as their campaign for justice, had raised more than $473,000 by 29 October. The family has expressed their deep appreciation for the expressions of solidarity from across the community.
A healthcare worker at the Perth Children’s Hospital who treated Cassius told Red Flag that his injuries and subsequent death have left hospital staff “grieving and in despair”. “The fact that the injuries were racially motivated makes me so angry. There is no place for racism in our society, none whatsoever. We must fight and continue to fight for Aboriginal health, especially for children,” said the healthcare worker, who wished to remain anonymous.
Liam Butler, a student at Swan View Senior High School, where Cassius studied, also spoke of the effect his death has had on the local community. “His death has sent ripples throughout the school, Midland/Swan and the wider Indigenous community. Students are mourning but staying strong in the face of this blatant injustice,” he said. “Teaching staff are equally outraged, with some from the Indigenous program handing out flyers at the school gate for the community event and posters for the upcoming vigil."
A National Day of Action demanding #justiceforcassius has been called for Wednesday 2 November. Event details: 
WA
Perth: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/881535252841315">Forrest Place, 12:30pm</a>
Bunbury: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/4197363193821512">Graham Bricknell Music Shell, 6pm</a>
Albany: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/581343867097314">Town Hall, 6:30pm</a>
Broome: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/685071106118441">Courthouse, 3:30pm walk, 5:30pm candlelight vigil</a>
Onslow: Front Beach BBQ, First Avenue, 5:30pm
NSW
Sydney: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1182816809248763">Town Hall, 6pm</a>
Mr Druitt, Cnr Carlisle Ave &amp; Luxford Rd, 6:30pm
Newcastle: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/663008088524760">Civic Park, 6pm</a>
Wollongong: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/654689479367904">MacCabe Park, 6pm</a>
Eden: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/2379763842163373">RSL, 6pm</a>
ACT
Canberra: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/ykx9vb3n">Aboriginal Tent Embassy, 6pm</a>
VIC
Melbourne: <a href="https://facebook.com/events/s/vigil-for-cassius-turvey/599900411880246/">Aboriginal Advancement League, 6pm</a>
Geelong: <a href="https://facebook.com/events/s/candlelight-vigil-for-cassius-/1091437158177715/">Wathaurong Aboriginal Corp, 6pm</a>
Portland: Skate Park Shelter, 6pm
QLD
Brisbane: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/652795829694291">King George Square, 6pm</a>
SA
Adelaide: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1176829813183920">Victoria Square, 6pm</a>
NT
Darwin: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/423704556415500">Rapid Creek Bridge, 6pm</a>
Alice Springs: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/3297604787190632">Courthouse, 6pm</a>

Nick Everett

Killing of Indigenous teenager sparks anger and protest

After a three-week trial, a Western Australian police officer last month was acquitted of the murder and manslaughter of 29-year-old Yamatji Wajarri woman JC.* It took the jury, with no First Nations peers, just three hours to reach its verdict.
JC, who suffered from schizophrenia, had been released from prison ten days before being shot dead in September 2019 in the Geraldton suburb of Rangeway. The jury heard that she had serious substance abuse issues and was distressed because she had lost custody of her young son.
Eight police officers responded to a report that JC was walking along the street carrying a pair of scissors and a bread knife. JC’s family had earlier contacted the police, concerned that she could be a danger to herself.
At the trial, the jury was told that five officers remained in their cars while one approached JC unarmed, urging her to drop her knife, and another drew his taser but did not use it. The police were armed with batons, tasers and capsicum spray, as well as pistols.
The accused officer, who was the last to arrive on the scene, got out of his vehicle, ran towards JC and shot her in the abdomen at close range. He testified he had acted in self-defence, claiming JC had turned towards him and raised the knife before he shot her. Yet the director of public prosecutions, Amanda Forrester SC, told the jury that CCTV footage showed that JC “did not take one step, at all, in any direction, let alone towards a police officer”.
JC died from her wounds in hospital, leaving behind her six-year-old son Caesar, who is now in the care of his aunt.
The verdict prompted protests in Geraldton and Kalgoorlie, where JC had family, and later in Perth and other capital cities on 28 October. 
In Perth, JC’s family members addressed a rally outside the parliament alongside Noongar and Yamatji activists and elders, including renowned Yamatji actor Ernie Dingo. Speakers condemned both the WA police and the racist criminal “justice” system.
“Our ancestors—they ain’t happy”, JC’s sister Jennifer Clarke told more than 100 protesters. “They’re not gonna be happy until this man that pulled the trigger is accountable. He has to be accountable for what he’s done to my sister. He fucking killed my sister, and he can walk free on this land? That ain’t right.”
Protesters demanded that Premier Mark McGowan and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Stephen Dawson address the rally but, unsurprisingly, their calls went unheeded. “Cowards!”, yelled the crowd.
“We’ll never get [justice], unless we stand together”, Clarke continued. “And it’s not gonna stop here. [We’re] taking this to Canberra next. [We’re] taking this to next big parliament house, see how you like that. We’ll march all over Australia, for JC. For my sister!”
Dozens of police officers surrounded the entrance to the parliament and, at one stage, descended upon Noongar activist Herbert Bropho when he attempted to place a red handprint on the windows.
Curtin University associate professor and Noongar activist Hannah McGlade condemned the McGowan government’s recent $1.6 billion funding pledge to the WA police, who she described as “nothing but killers”. 
“For the police commissioner to tell us to respect this horrendous verdict, this unjust verdict—we cannot respect it”, she said. “We know justice. Our people came from an ancient law, and people were punished when they committed crimes. But not under this law. This is a law of liars, white liars and white thieves. There is no justice here.”
McGlade spoke of several cases of racist verdicts and deaths in custody, describing such crimes as “an ongoing genocide against our people”. She called on the police commissioner to resign, rejecting his apology as a “mockery” and declaring that he was “not fit to govern”.
In an opinion piece at WAtoday.com.au, McGlade observed that not since 1926 had a serving WA police officer been charged with the murder of an Aboriginal person. 
In that year, a lynch mob of police and civilians descended on the community of Oombulgurri on the Forrest River Mission, murdering and burning the bodies of twenty Aboriginal people, according to the 1927 Wood Royal Commission.
German anthropologist Helmut Reim later concluded from interviews with three Aboriginal elders that between 80 and 100 Aboriginal people were killed in the massacres on the Marndoc Reserve, where the Forrest River Mission was located.
Two police officers, James St Jack and Denis Regan, were charged with murder and arrested. Yet, the case never went to trial: a preliminary hearing concluded that a jury would never convict the men.
Nearly a century later, little has changed.
Several high profile cases of Indigenous deaths in custody have led to charges being laid against police, but no police officer has ever been convicted.
In 1983, five WA police officers stood trial on a charge of unlawfully killing 16-year-old Aboriginal man John Pat. After being surrounded and brutally beaten by the off-duty officers outside Roebourne’s Victoria Hotel, Pat died of head injuries.
An all-white jury found the officers not guilty.
In 2007, Queensland Sergeant Chris Hurley faced trial in Townsville on charges of assault and manslaughter nearly three years after the death in custody of Aboriginal man Cameron Doomadgee (Mulrunji). The jury heard that Mulrunji’s spleen was severed as Hurley repeatedly punched him on the floor of the Palm Island police station.
An all-white jury found Hurley not guilty. After his acquittal, Hurley was transferred to the Gold Coast and given a promotion.
On 22 October, outside the WA Supreme Court, Clarke family supporter and Noongar woman Megan Krakouer told a rally that Indigenous people continue to be denied justice 30 years after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
Since the royal commission issued its findings in 1991, <a href="https://www.aic.gov.au/statistics/deaths-custody">471 Aboriginal people have died in custody</a>. Western Australia has the highest <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/corrective-services-australia/latest-release">Indigenous incarceration rate</a> and the country’s highest number of Aboriginal deaths in custody since 1991.
“This is what we have to deal with in the state of Western Australia. This happens far too many times, and it hurts, and it’s wrong”, Krakouer said. “No conviction ... and you wonder why Aboriginal people are so angry and disillusioned with the police and the system.”
* JC’s family have requested her name not be used for cultural reasons.

Why we need to protest Posie Parker

Killing of Indigenous teenager sparks anger and protest

‘This is a law of liars and thieves’: protests demand justice after JC’s police killer walks free

Other Media

Shop

Manage Your Subscription

Contact Us