Advocacy group Trans Justice Project has launched a petition that calls Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (also known as Posie Parker) to be a refused an Australian visa. If successful, this would block her from entering Australia next month.
Keen-Minshull has been booked to speak at Australia’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Brisbane on the 5-6 of October, alongside Sall Grover (who recently lost a federal court case to ban transgender people, in particularly trans woman Roxy Tickle, from the her ‘Giggle for Girls’ app on the basis of gender) and former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss.
The event coincides with the third and final week of the defamation case between Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto and MP Moira Deeming. Deeming was expelled from the state party after helping to organise and attending Keen-Minshull’s ‘Let Women Speak’ rally in Melbourne.
In 24 hours the Trans Justice Project have received more than 1700 signatures to their petition calling on the government to deny entry to Keen-Minshull on character grounds.
In an update posted today (24 September), they state that they have sent the petition and a letter to Immigration Minister Tony Bourke.
Who Is Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull?
Described by CPAC as a “woman’s rights activist”, and ‘a global phenomenon who asks the question ‘what is a woman’”, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull is a Youtuber and anti-trans activist known for her extreme statements against the trans community.
Going by the pseudonym Posie Parker, she achieved notoriety in Australia when she organised a series of rallies across the country under the banner Let Women Speak.
Her rally in Melbourne was attended by balaclava-wearing members of a neo-Nazi group, who performed the Nazi salute and held up a banner stating “destroy paedo freaks” – although anti-trans speakers denounced their attendance, and said they are not affilitated with the neo-Nazi group.
In Tasmania, Keen-Minshull called Tasmanian MP Cassy O’Connor a groomer and an abuser for having a trans child. In Canberra, senator Lydia Thorpe was pushed to the ground when she attempted to confront Keen-Minshull, shouting “You’re not welcome here”.
The Trans Justice Project and New Zealand’s The Disinformation Project found that anti-trans harassment and hate speech peaked for weeks after her rallies.
Keen-Minshull‘s tour came to an abrupt end after her rallies in New Zealand were outnumbered by counter-protesters, who heckled and threw tomato juice at her.
Previous attempts to ban Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull from Australia
In 2023, Greens’ MP Stephen Bates wrote to Immigration Minister Andrew Giles asking him to refuse Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s visa on character grounds, but his request was denied.
A Change.org petition by Melbourne-based LGBTQIA+ rights activist Chris Johnson, which called for Giles to revoke her visa, received over 11,000 signatures before receiving legal threats and being shut down.
After her 2023 Melbourne rally, Keen-Minshull sued Liberal leader John Pesutto for defamation. The matter was settled out of court, with Pesutto paying part of Keen-Minshull’s legal fees and issuing an apology for implying she was a neo-Nazi.
She stated she was delighted by Pesutto’s apology.
“I hope women throughout Australia should feel a little safer speaking about their fears in public,” she told ABC news.
What is CPAC?
Inspired by American conservative politics, CPAC Australia started in 2019 and boasts that it is the largest conservative gathering in Australia.
Sponsored by the Institute of Public Affairs and Advance, CPAC describes itself as “a values based nonprofit organisation that espouses the best of Howard, Reagan and Thatcher while exploring new ideas and themes for the coming generations.”
Previous speakers include Tony Abbott, Nigel Farage, Pauline Hanson, Raheem Kassam, and Fox News and Sky News presenters.
The Trans Justice Project’s petition
Trans Justice Project launched their petition to ban Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull from Australia this week.