A SERIES of counter protests are planned against an event due to be held in Glasgow and organised by Posie Parker, whose real name is Kellie-Jay Keen.
Parker (or Keen, or KJK) has made a name for herself online campaigning against trans rights and founding the group Standing for Women.
The group’s website says it aims to ensure the word woman “is retained to mean ‘adult human female’ only”. It adds: “2023 is the year of the TERF [trans-exclusionary radical feminist]”.
But who is Posie Parker, and why is she so controversial?
Parker is a podcaster and campaigner who has spoken across the world against trans rights. She is credited with coining the term "adult human female" to define a woman, a phrase which was used by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak earlier in the week.
In 2018, she made headlines after complaints led to the removal of a billboard she had paid to erect which bore the phrase.
However, she has faced criticism relating to allegations of racism, white supremacy, and ties to far-right anti-LGBT groups.
Parker is a special adviser to the women’s rights organisation Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF), which according to The Byline Times accepted a $15,000 donation from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) – a global “religious freedom” organisation campaigning against abortion and LGBT rights.
Parker has written for the right-wing magazine the Spectator against trans rights. Her first piece, entitled “John Lewis and the dreadful little emperors”, attacked the department store for an advert (above) featuring a young boy playing with make up and high heels.
In it, Parker said that “‘inclusion’ … is a new euphemism for male entitlement”, and claimed the advert was part of a campaign to groom people “into buying into an agenda that is ultimately harmful”.
She caused controversy in 2021 after using her platform to suggest that armed men should enter women's toilets to protect them from trans people.
Alleged comments about Muslim and Pakistani people
In 2018, Woman's Place UK, a group opposed to gender self-identification for trans people, cut links to Parker citing “her stated views on race and religion”.
“We reject any generalisations or misrepresentations of Muslims and other faith groups and we think this contributes to the alienation of these communities from the public discourse,” the group said at the time.
In 2022, Woman's Place UK shared a series of screenshots allegedly from Parker’s Twitter account to “clarify our own political ground and move on” from their decision to cut ties.
These twitter posts, allegedly posted by Parker and since deleted, said that areas of Bradford were an “awful place for women”, especially around one school which was “99.9% Pakistani Muslim”.
Another said it was “disgusting” that in a class of young children only “2/15 [girls] weren’t wearing hijab”.
In another alleged tweet from Parker circulating online she claimed Islamophobia was a “bullshit meaningless word to silence critics of Islam”.
She has further courted controversy after praising far-right campaigner Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson) in a Feminist Current podcast.
White supremacy allegations
Parker has faced numerous allegations of courting ideas of white supremacy. One incident came after she took a selfie with Hans Jørgen Lysglimt Johansen, a Norwegian neo-Nazi who was probed by police after his comments against Jews and denial of the Holocaust.
She was interviewed by the far-right network Soldiers of Christ Online, and appeared in a video alongside Jean-François Gariépy, a prominent far-right YouTuber who calls for a “white ethno-state”, according to PinkNews. Other guests on Gariépy’s show have included former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
Parker has claimed that she did not know the people in question were far-right when she spoke to them.
Parker was also accused of using a Barbie doll wearing a Nazi uniform as her profile picture on the social media site Spinster.
Controversy around Standing for Women’s tour of the UK
Standing for Women’s protest in Newscastle on January 16 sparked controversy after one of the speakers – Lisa Morgan – quoted Adolf Hitler to attack trans rights.
“Do you know the big lie? The big lie was first described by Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf … The big lie is that trans women are women,” Morgan told the people at the Parker-organised demonstration.
And a protest in Brighton’s Victoria Gardens in September last year also saw controversy after LGBT activist Oliver Waterhouse was physically assaulted.
Police witnessed the event and arrested 50-year-old Craig Thomas over the incident, which the court was told came after Waterhouse shouted “fascist” at the Standing for Women crowd through a megaphone.
Clash with gender critical allies
In 2019, another gender critical activist and blogger, Jean Hatchet, posted an article laying out why she would not "be 'standing for women'" after a clash with Parker.
She said she had raised concerns about the right-wing links which Parker was fostering during a trip to the US, but was ignored.
Hatchet wrote: "I kept asking about these right-wing links. My questions were either ignored or met with 'It's not a problem for me'. Posie said she is happy to work with anyone and will freely say so. I am not."
Hatchet also raised concerns about a connection with The Heritage Foundation. She wrote: "They advocate keeping poor women in marriages they wish to exit in order to solve the social problems those women 'cause' government. They say abortion harms women. They say they will help [Donald] Trump to 'drain the swamp'.
"I don't care what these people think about trans ideology. That cannot be separated from the things they do and advocate that specifically harm women."
She also commented on Parker's praise of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson), saying it was a "massive insult".
