Last week the beautiful rainbow crossing on Karangahape Road was covered in white paint by a carload of bigots most likely associated with the Density [sic] Church. The white paint was promptly spread down the road on the tyres of vehicles that drove over the crossing and washed away by the rain into the stormwater network, so we’ve got a bonus vandalism of the environment, cool.
Last week I had a memory pop up on Daylio from March 2023.
So yeah, I was one of those people waving trans flags making lots of noise at Albert Park. Supposedly we were silencing women but I’m a woman and the only people who tried to silence me that day were men from Destiny Church. I was between jobs, so on the Friday I went to QueerSpace at Auckland uni and helped the students paint signs. There were some heartbreaking and heartwarming conversations and stories shared in that room and I had the loveliest time and left with a very full cup.
On the Saturday while things were being set up, I had some really nice chats with people who were there to make some noise. I spoke to tourists and teachers, parents and grandmothers. People there for different reasons, but ultimately to get out there and make some noise and celebrate our trans community and show them aroha. I saw a dad who looked rough like mine, when confronted by a transphobe before the fences came down, he told her he has a trans daughter and she’s amazing and brave and he’s very proud of her. He was wearing a black “proud parent” t-shirt and I cried because unfortunately not all parents of trans kids are proud so seeing him sticking up for his daughter made me happy.
After the juicing, Posey Parker ran away and we had a celebration at the rotunda, followed by speeches by a variety of people, including our juice icon. Then we were told it was over and to go home, avoiding Aotea Square. Did we listen to this advice? No, we did not.
Our happy, colourful crowd with homemade cardboard and paper signs walked from Albert Park to Queen Street where Brian and Hannah Tamaki and their Destiny Church/ Vision Party gang were wearing matching t-shirts and holding professionally printed signs for the failed Tamaki political party.
We were marching down Queen Street, chanting “trans rights are human rights” and "trans rights save lives" when suddenly a young man, ripped my sign out of my hand and ran away with it. I didn’t think, just ran. I chased him for a half block, darting through the Destiny crowd from one side of the street to the other, between parked cars and down the footpath. What was I going to do if I caught him? No idea, I didn’t think. He ripped up my sign and put it in a rubbish bin then ran off into the crowd. I fished my sign out of the bin and held it together awkwardly for the remainder of the walk down Queen Street and then up again.
I really feel for all the scared little kids who were brought along to the Vision march, especially for the ones in prams being smashed into trans rights protestors, what the fuck? I wonder what did these people tell their kids about what they were doing there? I really fear for the queer kids growing up in that environment. Near the bottom of Queen Street a mother with young kids yelled at me about protecting kids. Yes, that’s literally why I was there, I want queer kids to be protected from hateful bullies and bigots.
The juicing at the rotunda was an iconic moment and as a result there was a lot of tomato juice around the internet a year ago. I bought a couple of tomato juice trans flag heart pins and then I stitched myself this bottle of trans rights tomato juice.
Here’s the pattern if you want to stitch your own. It is a thoroughly satisfying project to stitch and looks very nice next to my watermelon.
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