The bullying hypocrisy unleashed over Posie Parker

Tuesday, 28 March 2023

Pro-trans supporters drown out Posie Parker at Albert Park.

Sam Clements is a poet, editor, and former academic from Auckland.

OPINION: Those disruptive Posie Parker protesters who opposed her presence in Aotearoa, and who have been congratulating themselves over their raucous, aggressive, bullying behaviour, ought to navel gaze a little and look up the definition of hypocrisy.

Don’t preach love, tolerance and respect, then brazenly do the opposite. It’s not a one-way street. Dignity and self-control, whatever the circumstances, matters.

Issues such as gender identification, queer expression, restroom access, puberty blockers and the like are not simple ones. Pretending they are ignores the complex interplay and influence of cultural perspective, philosophy, theology, gender identification and human biology and physiology.

They’re issues with a wide range of views and opinions across the spectrum. They’ve ignited debates of all sorts of hues across cultures, countries, communities, and social strata.

* Posie Parker and The Battle of The Atlantic

* Anti-trans activist Posie Parker leaves country after chaotic Auckland rally

Since Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s trip to New Zealand, there has been an uptick in discussion around “free speech” versus “threatening speech”.

* Difficult Conversations: Should Posie Parker be allowed in the country?

* How an absolutist approach to free speech is obscuring hate speech

I’m not a fan of this woman in the slightest. She’s coarse, rough, borderline maniacally obsessed, and often acidically offensive.

Repeatedly, for example, referring to trans women as men is inflammatory, crude and callously dismisses the deeply profound and complex psychological and endocrinologically mediated potency and realness of gender identity, and seeks to further marginalise. It was hardly necessary to openly state an underlying genetic and chromosomal reality.

A trans rights demonstration in Wellington after Posie Parker’s planned appearance in the city was cancelled.

Equally, spreading fears of masses of marauding men identifying as women assaulting women in their restrooms is not supported by any statistics, and is frankly barking.

But she had a right to speak. She was never going to incite harm or hate for the transgender community. The attempt to block her entry to the country was frankly embarrassing.

Instead, a hornets’ nest has been stirred online of many incensed at Parker’s treatment. What could have been a storm in a Royal Doulton posy cup has become something else entirely. It has rightly ignited debate over the protection of the right of free speech, and over Parker’s positions.

And it’s paradoxically the latter that really could be weaponised to the detriment of transgender people down the line. It risks tarring and homogenising an entire “group” with the same brush: that it’s pushy, demanding, intolerant, absolutist, and greedily detached from “reality” in its demands.

Too readily those opposed to, or who question, trans demands, are accused of “hate speech”. The term is grossly overused, often misused and loaded. It’s often employed by individuals or groups who appear blissfully ignorant of the concepts of irony, paradox, cliché, and hypocrisy.

How much better a respectful protest would have been. Instead, those shrilly protesting her were played.

She never expected an audience of thousands supporting her, but she sure knew she’d bring out the opposition.

She could easily have hired private venues, but the point never was numbers. Why hold events behind closed doors where protester gatecrashers can be legally removed, when broad daylight in a park setting provides theatre and drama?

What better way to generate great social media footage than to appear in Albert Park in the CBD? The perfect backdrop on a fine autumnal morning. The perfect venue of historical protest significance beloved by the left.

Sam Clements is a poet, editor, and former academic from Auckland.

Cancelling her Wellington appearance and exiting the country? Excellent stagecraft. Check out the video and still footage being posted on Twitter. You allowed her to victimise herself on steroids. As some journalists have noted, you fell for it.

The publicity generated for Parker has been immense and international. In the spring an election will be fought that now focuses to a substantive indirect degree on cultural ideology.

Thanks to over-egged, highly strung “do-goodism”, everyone from Cape Reinga to the Bluff now knows who Posie Parker is. She’s been given priceless branding she loves and craves. And ignited debate.

Look forward to ACT and NZ First making mileage. Look forward to growing rumblings from Telegram conspiracy theorists and far right extremists. Look forward to being painted as fanatical extremists yourselves, however (possibly/probably/arguably/wholly) undeserved and ridiculous.

While I salute and acknowledge the sincere and heartfelt work many do on campuses and within various social community groups and settings in the area of “safe spaces”, and the potential benefits of such spaces, the cosy cocooning of some of these LGBTQI+ “safe” spaces too often seeks to shield and protect from the realities of the real world. A place where debate takes place, differences of opinion exist – however strong, painful, or hurtful – and that underpins all civilised, educated, and culturally sophisticated societies.

We fail to appreciate that at our long-term peril.

Listening, learning, exploring, debating, and ultimately respecting difference of opinion, is important, even if we passionately and angrily disagree.

If opinion advocates violence clearly, unambiguously, and implicitly, we have laws that will result in prosecution of those individuals. Attempting to shut down strong opinions, however unpalatable we might find them, including through attempting to enact repressive laws, is not in the interests of a healthy democracy.

People may never reach consensus, but at least they’ll never be accused of lacking decency. And maintaining decency, particularly in the face of indecency, matters.

Will we fail at decency? Yes. We’re all human. But it matters that we never tire in our endeavours to find common ground, however tenuous and fragile that ground may be, or to forget the human.

Such endeavours can produce great long-term good. That is something all passionate believers in liberty should surely agree upon.