Image: Taylor (left) and Evelyn (right) attended and spoke at the rally together, sharing their experiences as part of the LGBT+ community. Image: Christine Chen.
By CHRISTINE CHEN
On Thursday, trans rights activists interrupted a controversial gender-critical conference, hosted in Parliament House and supported by two members of NSW Parliament, as dozens more protested outside the building.
The gender-critical conference, called ‘Why Can’t Women Speak About Sex?’, claimed to address the “war on women who speak out for sex-based rights” and the “transgender orthodoxy.”
Hobart City Councillor Louise Elliot, currently under investigation by the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commissioner for hate speech incitement, and Angie Jones, an organiser of a Let Women Speak event co-opted by neo-Nazis in Melbourne in March, were among the speakers inside Parliament. They argued that supporting trans women’s rights is oppressive and dangerous to biological women.
As Liberal Democrats member John Ruddick started giving his introductory remarks, however, trans rights activists stood up from the audience and inveighed against his involvement and the event more broadly.