Their kaupapa is not “inclusive” enough

Another lesbian group kicked out of another Pride:

It’s Pride Month in Wellington and as a part of that Out Wellington Inc. hosts a fair called Out in the Park.

We had our place at the fair confirmed in early February so we’ve been planning on attending for some time. We were excited to go along and show that it’s okay to be a lesbian and proud, but instead we’ve been banned because our kaupapa is not “inclusive” enough.

Kaupapa is Maori for statement of principles. Not inclusive enough how? Let’s see if we can figure it out.

We agree with these core principles laid out by the Women’s Liberation Front:

Maybe that’s it? Maybe “female humans” is considered insufficiently inclusive? But if so…then…then women have to be banned from everything, right? It will be just men and trans women from now on, because only they are inclusive enough?

But maybe it’s not that. Maybe it’s this:

We want an end to all laws and institutions which perpetuate men’s aggression towards and dominance over women.

We encourage non-compliance with sex-role stereotypes. Heteronormativity is built on and maintained through sex-role stereotypes. Nobody should be harassed, threatened or abused for not complying to sex-role stereotypes.

Maybe that’s it? Maybe it’s considered not-inclusive of trans people to encourage non-compliance with sex-role stereotypes? But if so…then…then we can’t encourage non-compliance with sex-role stereotypes any more, which means we can’t have feminism any more.

Or maybe it’s this:

The LRAA is opposed to pornography and the sex industry because it is violence against women and girls. Members of the LRAA do not participate in anyones sexual exploitation.

Not inclusive of pimps and johns? Is that where we are now?

Back to the post:

Festival directors Drew Hadwen and Karen Harris emailed us seemingly out of the blue rescinding our stall and invoice. They said that because they “welcome all people, groups and organisations who want to join with us to celebrate the amazing diversity and creativity in our LGBTIQ+ community”  they can not have our lesbian feminist stall or “presence” at Out Wellington Inc. organised events.

Problem. Hadwen and Harris explain that because they welcome all people, groups and organisations therefore they have to banish The Lesbian Rights Alliance Aotearoa. That’s a contradiction, for a start, but it’s also bizarre given the L in LGBTIQ+. The LGBTIQ+ Pride fair welcomes all people, groups and organisations except the L part of LGBTIQ+? Makes.no.sense.

Notes:

Our group was honest and transparent in our application. We applied with our names, as The Lesbian Rights Alliance Aotearoa and said we are “a new and growing lesbian group and we are starting to expand our events and social activities in Wellington.”

Our application was accepted and our attendance at the event was publicly announced on the Out in the Park Facebook page.

Our kaupapa has been publicly available online since 6 June 2018.

The Police, Corrections and Young Nats will all have stalls at the event.

Interesting. The cops are inclusive enough, the department of corrections is inclusive enough, the Young Nats are inclusive enough…

The New Zealand Young Nationals, more commonly called the Young Nats, is the youth wing of the New Zealand National Party, a centre-right political party in New Zealand, and a member of the International Young Democrat Union.

All those inclusive as fuck, but those pesky lesbian feminists…ewwwww no get them out.

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