Queer Endurance Defiance (QED) is holding a gathering at Parliament at 12.45pm on the 8th of June to counter the rally of an extremist anti-transgender group.

The anti-trans group are attempting to appropriate LGBTQI Pride Month, which is celebrated in June in the USA, to pretend there is a divide between the transgender community and the rest of the queer community.

Trans activists have always been at the forefront of gay, lesbian and queer rights movements, from Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera at Stonewall, to Connie Norman in the AIDS activism group ACT UP, through to the present day. We are sickened that anti-trans groups would attempt to erase this history and attempt to gatekeep the queer community.

Queer Endurance Defiance spokesperson Tris says: “This will be our third counter-demonstration for trans rights in as many months. We understand that continually having to show up to face down hatred is frustrating. But we cannot allow bigotry to have free reign, and so we will be there and queer, and bigots will just have to get used to us.”

QED’s gathering at 12.45pm 8th of June will be peaceful and will demonstrate the solidarity between trans- and cis-gender members of the queer community and show that the true meaning of Pride is inclusivity and acceptance. We call upon the whole Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington rainbow community to join us.

© Scoop Media