Transgender laws critic Kellie-Jay Keen cleared to speak at Hobart rally

A Hobart rally led by British transgender rights critic Kellie-Jay Keen will go ahead, after state parliament rejected demands it ban the gathering in the wake of Melbourne’s neo-Nazi outburst.

Kellie-Jay Keen, right, with Liberal Moira Deeming in front of the Victorian Parliament on Saturday.. Picture: David Crosling

A Hobart rally led by British transgender rights critic Kellie-Jay Keen will go ahead, after state parliament rejected demands it ban the gathering in the wake of Melbourne’s neo-Nazi protest.

Presiding officers of the Tasmanian parliament on Monday ruled that the rally on the parliamentary lawns planned for Tuesday could proceed, rejecting demands by transgender activists and the Greens to ban the event.

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor accused the group behind the rally, Let Women Speak, of being “fake feminists who play footsies with fascists”.

However, LWS and its supporters said the neo-Nazis at its rally in Melbourne on Saturday were gatecrashes and that the group ­opposed Nazis as much as anyone.

LWS called for its own ban – on a counter rally being organised by transgender rights activists for about the same time and the same location.

House of Assembly Speaker Mark Shelton, a Liberal, and Legislative Council president Craig Farrell, of Labor, rejected both demands on the grounds of protecting free speech.

“The lawns at parliament have always been a gathering place for democratic activity, including protests of all persuasions,” they said in a joint statement.

“While there may at times be opposing views to the protests ­occurring, censoring free speech is not in the interests of a democratic society. All protests are ­expected to be conducted peacefully and lawfully.”

LWS said its rally was about saying “no to men in women’s changerooms, toilets, refuges and prisons”, opposing “sex self-identification laws”, and defending the rights of lesbians to “meet in women-only spaces”.

In a letter to Mr Shelton, Anna Sharman of Women Speak Tasmania said the only “risks and ­occasions of violence and harm” at Melbourne’s rally “came from the trans rights activists”.

“The neo-Nazi men in black were not there to support LWS and have publicly stated their ­opposition to LWS,” Ms Sharman said. “The women attending LWS denounce their presence and ­actions and considered them an equal threat to our society as the trans rights activists.”

But Ms O’Connor accused the group of “standing shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with Nazis” and “sharing an ideology of ­demonising a minority – transgender people”.

Equality Tasmania said free speech “comes with a responsibility not to harm others”. “Parliament House, the home of Tasmanian democracy, should not be giving a platform to speakers who attract Nazi sympathisers,” spokesperson Rose Boccalatte said.

The Tasmanian government said the rallies were a matter for the presiding officers, but Liberal cabinet minister Guy Barnett ­appeared to endorse their decision. “We support free speech in Australia including in Tasmania but it needs to be respectful,” he said.