“We have been targeted online and the abuse has been terrible,” Sunita Torrance, the drag queen performer behind the Rainbow Storytime readings, told the NZ Herald.
“They are publishing our names and our photos and crossing the line, but being called a paedophile is about the lowest thing you can do to anyone.”
Torrance was actually brought up as part of the Destiny Church whānau.
“I grew up in the church, so I have that upbringing and I would never subscribe to the idea of telling people they shouldn’t exist — where does that come from?”
Tamaki had said similar action and pressure would be put on the Gisborne and Hastings councils to cancel their drag queen readings this week. That included a threat to paint over the rainbow crossing if the council didn’t cancel yesterday’s event.
They aimed to “protect the innocence of children” and to force the Mayor to cancel the event by destroying a symbol that represented the group holding it, Tamaki said.
He also told the NZ Herald yesterday that the protest action was in part due to the lack of communication from the council regarding their fears about the library event.
For the record, the Living Library drag queen reading event in Gisborne was promoted for rangatahi aged 16 years and over.
Local Destiny leader Leighton Packer, who livestreamed the painting over of the rainbow crossing, stood for the church’s political arm Vision NZ at the general election last year, receiving 323 votes of the 40,618 counted in the East Coast electorate. She also stood unsuccessfully for the Tairāwhiti General Ward at the 2022 local body election — ranking 20th of the 25 candidates.
