Journalist Yvonne van Dongen says she will take any opportunity she can to talk about the pernicious impact of gender ideology in our society.
It’s why the Freemans Bay resident is a candidate for the Women’s Right’s Party (WRP) this election and it is a concern that forms the basis of her substack. Gender ideology is the set of beliefs which claims a person’s subjective identity takes precedence over their biological sex. This ideology argues that a male can be a woman and a female can be a man and it demands that institutions should treat that identity accordingly.
Van Dongen says gender ideology has led to the erosion of women’s sex-based rights wherever it has taken hold. WRP members call themselves gender critical or sex realists. They assert that women's rights were historically established around sex, and that replacing sex with gender identity has made those rights harder to define and enforce.
It has led to what van Dongen calls the “greatest medical scandal of the century damaging young people. Young people have been medicated and mutilated in the name of a subjective, unverifiable identity. The facts are that there are only two sexes, no one can change sex and no one is born in the wrong body.”
The WRP was formed by former Labour council and union member Jill Ovens and fellow Labour local body politician Dawn Trenberth, following the mobbing at Albert Park three years ago. Over 2000 protestors overwhelmed and, in some cases, attacked the 200 women who had come to hear British women’s rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen (aka Posie Parker) speak. Keen was eventually bundled out of the melee by her security guards aided by police. She later said she feared for her life.
Van Dongen says the WRP does not aim to be all things to all people. It deliberately has a narrow set of policies dedicated to preserving women’s sex-based rights. Key policies are the repeal of self-sex ID which allows people to change their sex on their birth certificate and to do this as often as they like. Also they want the word gender removed from all legislation, in particular, the Conversion Therapy Bill.
The WRP also has policies on surrogacy (against all commercial surrogacy and using international surrogacy to get around our laws) and prostitution, a trade they regard as harmful to women. The WRP prefers the Nordic model where the men are prosecuted and the women aided to leave the abusive business.
The award winning journalist said she became aware of gender ideology in 2019. Since then she has attempted (and failed) to get mainstream media to take the issue seriously. Instead she has encountered indifference at best and opposition at worst. She calls the media's dismal response “the great silencing.”
When asked if casting a vote is wasted for such a small party, van Dongen says “Not at all. Many people feel disillusioned by the political parties on offer and say they are politically homeless. The Women’s Rights Party is grounded in reality and women’s rights. We are a haven for the politcally homeless who care about these issues. A vote for us also sends a message to politicians that there are people who feel strongly about the issues we are campaigning on.”
https://womensrightsparty.nz/
