HENRY BROADBENT (HE/HIM)
Last Tuesday, the usually quiet mezzanine floor in Rutherford House was transformed into a successful protest and, once the TERFS failed to materialise, a party. The event was a response to a planned speaking event at the University, hosted by Australian transphobe Sall Grover. Grover has been in the limelight since her attempts to remove a trans woman, Roxanne Tickle, from her women-only social media platform ‘Giggle for Girls’ resulted in a lawsuit. This has sparked a federal court case—Australia’s first legal test of gender identity based anti-discrimination laws.
Grover, keeping her time in the spotlight classy, has attempted to crowdfund her legal fees by, among other things, selling a $37.70 “Sweaty Balls Team Giggle” scented candle, featuring a demeaning caricature of Ms Tickle. Not content to limit her bigotry to Etsy and a Sydney courthouse, this month Grover embarked on a transphobic roadshow around Aotearoa, visiting conference venues in Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington and Christchurch. A decision on the case is expected later this year.
In the three other cities Grover, via the Women’s Rights Party, took her crusade to private community venues. Only in Wellington did the event take place at a university. There are, according to Venue Finder, at least 78 conference venues in the city that are not on University grounds.
The protest at Rutherford House was attended by Vic students and staff, Massey students, and members of the public. In communication with Salient last week the University stressed that venue bookings are external, and took pains to establish that the University had “no direct involvement with organising the event”. Protestors and organisers at Tuesday’s event were universally unmoved by this information.
One VUW student at the protest, Oliver, told Salient the event taking place “at a university where there are trans students, myself included, sends the message that we’re not safe”. Alice, a member of UniQ, echoed this sentiment, stating that she “... cannot picture myself nor any other trans student, especially trans feminine students, feeling confident that the university has our back”. Another protester, under condition of anonymity, saw the event as a continuation of last trimesters' free speech panel, telling Salient Te Hiwa “is pandering to the Free Speech Union instead of listening to their students”. As for the claims of University leadership that venue hire is out of control? They didn’t buy it.
“We’re supposed to accept that the Vice Chancellor and Provost don’t have the power to vet speakers on their campus? They’re just avoiding responsibility. They’ve tried nothing, and they’re all out of ideas.”
That protestor was not the only person present to draw a direct line between the actions of the leadership team last trimester, and the (slated) presence of TERFs in Pipitea last week. Chatting with Salient after the protest, Alice saw the same connection. She expressed fear of these two events representing the start of a potentially precedent-setting ‘slippery slope’. “If I were Johnathan Ayling or if I were, you know, the Women’s Rights Party secretary … I would see the quotes from Nic Smith and I would feel emboldened. I would say ‘okay, this is a space where we can be unchallenged, at least by the administration’ … and I wonder how long it is before Action Zelandia [a neofascist white nationalist group] is booking a room?”
When our Deputy PM has decided transphobic bathroom legislation is a priority, when queer identities globally are increasingly targeted and precarious, when our community needs allyship more than ever, queer students at Vic are feeling ignored, scapegoated and left behind.
Te Hiwa last week responded, if evasively, to questions from our Chief Reporter surrounding event hire, and refused a request for an interview. Salient sent a further inquiry to Te Hiwa this week, asking them to a) respond to a UniQ statement outlining the fears of queer students at Vic, b) commit to changes surrounding venue hire on a policy level, and c) provide information about what vetting process takes place, if any. The University declined to answer our questions directly, instead replying with a broad statement absolving them of responsibility for on-campus venues.
Salient has since made a second request for an interview, along with further follow-up questions. Watch this space.