TACOMA — A rally held by a British anti-transgender activist and her supporters dissolved into shouting and pepper spray Wednesday at Tacoma’s Tollefson Plaza.
Kellie-Jay Keen, who goes by the pseudonym Posie Parker, is on a speaking tour in the United States, supporters told The News Tribune. She’s the head of a group, Standing for Women, which says it supports free speech and women’s sex-based rights. It is virulently anti-transgender
Keen spoke to about 30 supporters at the late-morning rally. Initially, about 20 counter-protesters stood above the plaza.
Counter-protesters soon grew to at least 200 and descended into the plaza. Keen left the rally before many of her supporters did.
Port Townsend-based Standing for Women activist Amy Sousa attended the rally and called herself pro-woman.
“We don’t believe there’s like a million different identities,” Sousa said. “There’s gender flux and demiboy and alien girl and cat gender. So we don’t believe in any of that.”
One protester held a sign that read “Trans ‘women’ are men.”
“We peaceably assembled for our free speech,” Sousa said. “And we were mobbed by this group of mostly angry children.”
Nearby was Jeanna Hoch, who was arguing with a group of young counter-protesters. Seconds earlier she had sprayed a counter-protester in the face with pepper spray.
Hoch said the counter-protester had touched her. She screamed, “Do not touch me,” over and over as she backed up a hill. Down slope the counter-protester sat on grass, writhing in pain. A volunteer medic who declined to be identified said they treated at least five other protesters for pepper spray.
Hoch, a Denver resident, said she was spit at and pushed. She said she had been assaulted Tuesday at a rally in Portland.
“I was prepared for the violence,” Hoch said. One protester’s hand was injured and required medical treatment, Hoch said.
Counter-protesters Katy Evans and Sweet Pea Flaherty offered comfort to the young counter-protesters, many who appeared to be Tacoma School of the Arts students. Several required water to flush their eyes.
“It felt scarier at the beginning,” Evans said. “But their numbers did not increase, and Tacoma showed up.”
Counter-protesters surrounded the rally participants with noise.
“Just trying to drown out their message and then make them feel like it was time to leave,” Evans said.
One counter-protester sprayed the rally with Silly String. Hoch responded with pepper spray and hit a different nearby counter-protester, Lorenzo Cervantes, in the face with the painful liquid.
“They used violent tactics,” Cervantes said later. “(Hoch) came prepared to hurt somebody. We weren’t hurting anybody.”
Tacoma Police spokesperson Wendy Haddow said one person reported a cell phone was taken from their hand and smashed on the ground at the rally, which resulted in a suspect’s arrest for simple assault and malicious mischief.
