Background:
On Sunday 23 February 2025, between 1200 and 2000 LGBTQ+ allies assembled in Albert Park in defiance of Destiny Church. The week prior, one of Destiny Church’s front groups, Man Up, had stormed and terrorised a Drag King’s storytime event in the Te Atatu Peninsula library, where one person was concussed and terrified children were barricaded in a room for protection. Later that day at the Auckland Rainbow Parade, Destiny Church showed up again, disrupting the parade with a haka.
Organisation of Rally:
In light of these events, People Against Prisons Aotearoa (PAPA) organised the rally to defy Destiny Church’s intimidation tactics and to make several demands of the New Zealand government. An impressive amount of wheatpasting around Central Auckland as well as social media posts spread the news of the event. Several prominent activists and leftists were invited to talk, namely Emmy Rākete (PAPA), Eru Kapa-Kingi (Toitū te Tiriti), Benjamin Doyle (Greens), Chlöe Swarbrick (Greens), Reverend Mua Strickson-Pua and Drag Queen Medulla Oblongata.
Summary of Talks:
Elders from Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei opened the event with a denunciation of Destiny Church, support for the LGBTQ+ community, and a strong stance that “all cultures know violence, and we all detest it.” Following Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Medulla Oblongata spoke about the narrative of ‘protecting the children’ and the impact of colonisation on gender norms. What stuck with me was her argument that stories about queerness and transness don’t hurt children, it is fear, hate and violence which do; and since colonisation Christian beliefs have pushed Mātauranga Maori into the periphery, where queerness has become illicit. Her chant “No hate; no fear; queer stories belong here!” pushed back against normative beliefs and knowledge.
Reverend Mua Strickson-Pua brought positivity and dance moves to the event, playing his son’s song It’s On (Nesian Mystik). He was followed by Eru Kapa-Kingi, who thanked the queer community for trusting him to speak as a cis-het man, and felt honoured as the event was about their struggle. Eru discussed activism, and defined it as standing up for what is morally right. Continuing, he said “It is not about opposing destiny, but embracing destiny. Embracing our destiny and rejecting the destiny which has been imposed on us [by the colonial government].” He stated “This is a marae where everyone gets a feed; where there is no such thing as poverty; no such things as prisons!” He argued that we must “invite the oppressors into the marae and teach them to heal” linking it to a whakataukī that states that “even if your greatest enemy is dying of starvation, you must feed them”. He ultimately concluded that “liberation in Aotearoa is liberation for everyone.”
Emmy Rākete spoke intermittently throughout the rally, always offering firm and clear connection to, and critique of, capitalism. She argued that it is government policy which has created the need which Destiny Church fills. The ongoing rolling back of the state, selling of public housing stock and the required reserve of unemployed workers has left families broken, individuals traumatised, and the poverty-stricken incarcerated. The wet, dark, humid underbelly of New Zealand society has been a breeding ground for recruits to Destiny Church, which has stepped in to provide functions that the state once did. Ultimately it is the economic base of society (or lack thereof) which provides the breeding ground, and Destiny Church is just one group which exploits this underclass.
Demands:
The demands were clear: government departments such as Corrections and Te Whatu Ora must stop referring people to Man Up or any other Destiny Church front-group, and Destiny Church-affiliated charities must be removed from the charities register.
Critiques:
While I broadly agree with what was said, I found myself a little puzzled by Eru Kapa-Kingi’s speech. While it may seem semantic, the reliance on moral categories to define activism essentially makes the word meaningless, as Destiny Church are thoroughly convinced that what they are doing is moral as it is ordained by God (who in their eyes is the creator of morality). Rather, activism is fighting for liberation and creating the conditions where the voiceless can speak. It is a material rather than moral question.
Furthermore, Kapa-Kingi seemed to muddle the lines between the oppressive systems of capitalism and colonialism, and the individual members of the bigoted groups that we were condemning. Of course, individuals in these groups could be redeemed if they renounced the hateful ideas that they espouse, which are upheld by, and reinforce, the logic of capitalist class-society. But it is the system that brutally exploits labour and land which is our greatest enemy, and we would not overcome that enemy by embracing or feeding it. Utu is required to bring the world back into balance.
Conclusion:
The closing words of Emmy Rākete reverberated throughout the crowd to resounding applause, and are still with me today for good reason. She reached into her pocket and removed something, before raising it into the sky with her fist clenched, declaring “These are my estrogen pills… Destiny Church can take them from my cold dead fucking hands!”
Image Credit: @pumpkinsintrees
