Crossan said the protesters were now doing \u201cokay\u201d and \u201csafe\u201d, noting that RAT did not \u201cwish to claim credit for their actions\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was their mahi, they were the ones to take that risk\u201d.<\/p>\n
Crossan claimed that another RAT supporter was harmed during the demonstration.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of our disabled wh\u0101nau who is a wheelchair user was assaulted, but luckily, other members from Rainbow Action T\u0101maki were able to protect her and she is also safe now.\u201d<\/p>\n
People were heard earlier chanting \u201cNational off the stage\u201d and also jeering when emcee Miss Ribena announced which politicians were not in attendance.<\/p>\n
In a release ahead of the festival, Rainbow Action T\u0101maki criticised organiser The Burnett Foundation\u2019s decision to invite Government MPs.<\/p>\n
\u201cRainbow Action T\u0101maki unequivocally condemns the decision by Big Gay Out to platform right-wing transphobic, racist and Genocide enabling polititions [sic],\u201d the group said on Instagram.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommunity outrage clearly communicated that BGO must pull the plug on the inclusion of our communities\u2019 political opponents.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor this reason, we have decided to hold them accountable. We will take action to protest and drown out all right wing polititions on the panel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Addressing the crowd, Swarbrick said she wanted to acknowledge there was a \u201clot of righteous anger because people are aware of the things this Government has done\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kinds of things we\u2019re seeing proliferated online comes from the top.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is being tolerated in our Parliament, the level of toxicity unlike anything I have ever seen in the previous six years, in my last two terms.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Burnett Foundation\u2019s chief organisation enablement officer Mary Haddock-Staniland told the Herald the foundation tried to approach RAT members as they entered the festival, but they were not \u201cprepared to engage with us\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know protest and disagreement are part of a healthy democracy, but actions that put people at risk or disrupt the safety of others, we don\u2019t endorse, nor do we support,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Haddock-Staniland said the presence of the MPs at the festival did not indicate the foundation\u2019s endorsement of their policies.<\/p>\n
Rather, it reflected a \u201clong-standing approach of visibility and accountability and actually engaging with decision-makers who choose to affect the health and the rights and the well-being of our communities\u201d.<\/p>\n
While she admitted the foundation had \u201cwork to do inside our organisation,\u201d it remained \u201ccommitted to holding space for a dialogue where protecting our people and upholding the kaupapa of our togetherness and our dignity and visibility sits at the heart of our events\u201d.<\/p>\n
Rainbow Action T\u0101maki member Mia Crossan (left) said the group stands by protesters’ actions today. Photo \/ Supplied.<\/p>\n
However, RAT said it was \u201cdeeply upset\u201d queer community voices had not been \u201clistened to or taken seriously\u201d by the Burnett Foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cPoliticians should not be on the stage platformed at Pride events,\u201d Crossan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBig Gay Out is a wonderful event and I was still happy to be in attendance despite my grievances with the foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Pride is for the community, by the community, about the community. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf they want political advocacy, they should have reached out to activists who have been in this community for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crossan said the protesters were now doing \u201cokay\u201d and \u201csafe\u201d, noting that RAT did not \u201cwish to claim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[68094,74,26652,51,1558,8834,6326,5131,76867,71,21327,78,17847,17318,111,43,139,69,3111,18481,14797,5196,5433,151892,21419],"class_list":["post-285049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-advancing","tag-after","tag-aotearoas","tag-auckland","tag-been","tag-big","tag-biggest","tag-festival","tag-forcibly","tag-from","tag-gay","tag-in","tag-lgbtq","tag-mps","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-out","tag-politicians","tag-protester","tag-removed","tag-stage","tag-storming","tag-towards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}