More than 30 protesters led by British feminist Kellie-Jay Keen disrupted a Halloween pumpkin-carving contest judged by drag queens in San Francisco on Oct. 22.
The contest was hosted by California Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who had promoted it as a family event, at Noe Valley Courts, a city park.
An outspoken LGBT activist, Wiener has come under fire recently for suggesting that “drag queen story time” should be part of the state’s K–12 school curriculum, and for his lead legislative role in making California a transgender sanctuary state, pushing “gender-affirming” health care, and allowing male convicts who identify as female into women’s prisons.
Keen, also known as Posie Parker on social media, is a critic of the transgender movement, including men who call themselves “trans women” encroaching on women’s sports, bathrooms, and shower rooms. She was in San Francisco as part of her Let Women Speak tour as founder of the organization Standing for Women.
“Scott, why do you support chemically castrating children? Why do you support this?” Cattinson asked as Wiener retreated from the crowd.
“Do you know that puberty blockers cause osteoporosis?” another protester shouted over a bullhorn.
“Convicted sex offenders are housed in women’s prisons,” said another.
“Puberty blockers sterilize kids. Why are you sterilizing kids?” Keen shouted as Wiener left the park and walked down the street.
“Why did you make this state somewhere that you can come to have a double mastectomy at 13?” she said. “No accountability. Shame on you.”
Wiener’s staff asked the protesters to leave the park and move to the sidewalk.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and Mayor London Breed attended the Saturday afternoon event, as well as members of the board of education and other local officials.
About 60 adults, including Wiener and his staff, and around 40 children were in attendance.
Many of the protesters described themselves as liberals who left the Democratic Party over its push for so-called gender-affirming care—the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender reassignment surgery—for children.
They chanted “Lies! Lies! Lies!” and displayed signs such as “No child is born in the wrong body,“ ”No child can consent to be sterilized,“ ”Democrats against puberty blockers,“ ”Protect kids from Big Pharma,“ and ”Why are so many girls having double mastectomies?”
“He’s promoting the idea that if you can’t get surgery in your state for your kids, you can come and have them sterilized in California,” Keen said of Wiener. “So that’s why we’re here in San Francisco. This is a women’s free speech event.”
Keen is flabbergasted that she’s on tour to state the obvious—or at least what used to be obvious to most people.
“I’m literally in another country talking about being brave apparently for saying a woman is an adult human female and that we shouldn’t mutilate kids,” she told The Epoch Times before the event. “Somehow that has become something that can’t be said except by the brave.”
Transgenderism is not only about erasing boundaries between men and women, but it’s also blurring sexual boundaries between adults and children, Keen said to supporters.
“It’s weird that parents are OK with it. It’s weird that there is a state senator promoting adult sexuality to children, and parents have come along,” she said. “I feel like I’m in ‘The Twilight Zone.’ There are literally people thinking it’s a great act of diversity and inclusion to bring their children to something promoted by this man who has erased women’s rights.”
“He’s put male rapists in women’s prisons,” she said.
The law, which took effect on Jan. 1, 2021, allows prisoners who identify as transgender, non-binary, and intersex “to request to be housed and searched in a manner consistent with their gender identity,” according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Lierre Keith, founder of a group called Women’s Liberation Front, told the protesters that the organization is suing the state in federal court on behalf of women in prison.
Keith, a self-described “radical feminist,” was the first of several liberal women to speak at the event.
“Some of these men get put in your 10 by 10 cell—open shower, no privacy and the door is locked,” she said. “Do I need to tell you that the women are living in terror, that these men wasted no time in threatening and assaulting women, that the women are sleeping in shifts because they’re so terrified?”
Keen told The Epoch Times that drag queen shows have long been considered adult entertainment and should remain that way.
However, she said she personally sees drag queens as a “parody of women” and “quite offensive.”
“Maybe Halloween is actually the most appropriate place for them,” she said. “It is pretty horrifying.”
Keen’s next stop on her tour was supposed to be Portland, but she’s reconsidering visiting the city due to safety concerns.
Another Halloween event in California featuring a “family-friendly” drag queen show is also planned for Oct. 29 in San Diego. A flier describes it as “the queerest free Halloween party for youth and families” and says the event will also include games, trick-or-treating, and a costume contest.
The nonprofit TransFamily Support Services, which is hosting the event, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
