Anti-trans freedom movement protesters storm local council meeting

Freedom movement protesters descended on a Monash City Council meeting in Melbourne on Wednesday night to hurl abuse at councillors and demand the cancellation of an upcoming drag queen story time event.

The estimated crowd of 170 people continuously called the councillors “paedophiles”, accused them of parading “sex in front of our children”, and yelled for them to be sacked and arrested. Repeated chants of “shame on you” and “hands off our kids” forced Mayor Tina Samardzija to halt the already delayed meeting.

Victorian police were called in to help contain the “unusually high volume of people” at the council’s Glen Waverley office. In a statement to Crikey, they said that no arrests were made.

Monash Council said that security was enlisted and police alerted about the potential for trouble prior to the meeting following an influx of violent and abusive messages via email, social media and phone relating to the library drag event scheduled for May 19.

“Council is used to working and communicating with people in a heightened state, but the level of anger related to this issue has been concerning — with direct approaches to councillors and staff at times overstepping the line of what we believe to be appropriate,” the council’s CEO, Dr Andi Diamond, told Crikey.

The council was bracing for “more people than usual” and a flood of questions, with 30 questions lodged in advance.

The anti-trans protests, led by a group called “Voice for Kids”, stalled the start of Wednesday’s council meeting and temporarily suspended proceedings once they kicked off.

According to the group’s website, its remit is to “send a clear message to Monash councillors that drag queen shows are not appropriate for children”.

The group appears to be spearheaded by prominent anti-lockdown advocate Monica Smit, also at the helm of the group Reignite Democracy Australia that has spruiked conspiracy theories relating to vaccines, lockdowns, 5G, and extreme weather events.

Taking to Twitter, Smit denied any association with Voice for Kids other than helping to “create a basic website”.

The Reignite Democracy Australia and Voice for Kids websites share a designer (Coral Designs), while a domain search shows both are registered to Smit. The Voice for Kids author page also lists a “Perry”, which Crikey understands to be Perry Thorp, author and photographer for Reignite Democracy Australia.

In the lead-up to the event, Reignite Democracy Australia’s Twitter account posted a picture of anti-trans signage and declared: “Someone is ready for tonight 🙂 NOTE – we are not ANTI-trans…we are ANTI-using tax payers funds for ex porn stars to read books to our children,” before linking through to the Voice for Kids website.

Despite the campaign online and in person to pressure the council to scrap the event, Diamond said Monash was committed to delivering the event to support their LGBTQIA+ community and asked people to “respect this choice”.