A mother who was with her young children to attend a children’s drag science show said youngsters were crying as the violent group tried to enter the building.
She told the Herald adults in the room tried putting on a happy face to comfort the children, some as young as 2, while yelling and banging came from outside.
The music for the performance was turned up to distract from the ruckus and the performer targeted by the protesters appeared increasingly nervous, the anonymous mother said.
“There was a huge amount of people out there and if they had actually come in, you know, it was a small room, it would have been very difficult to keep ourselves safe,” she said.
Destiny Church groups Man Up and Legacy Sisterhood protest against a children's library drag event at Te Atatū Community Centre.
“I would have been terrified for what might have happened and how my children could have been involved or witnessed hostility.
“I was focused on my daughter and trying to make sure that she wasn’t getting too upset because she could hear all the shouting outside and the banging on the walls and stuff. So I was just trying to keep her calm and I just told her there were some naughty kids outside.”
The melee, involving the church’s Man Up and Legacy groups and youngsters,happened at Te Atatū Community Centre on Saturday with protesters punching, pushing and shoving their way inside.
Auckland councillor Richard Hills today shared the terror felt by an 11-year-old inside the library on Saturday.
Speaking at a meeting this morning of the council’s Policy and Planning Committee, he read aloud a quote from the youngster, named Sammy, who described being scared and worrying the protesters would hurt someone, RNZ reported.
“I started to get really scared when the chanting got louder and we heard it inside, especially when they were banging on the door,” Hills read.
“I thought they’d come in and hurt people.”
Hills said council needed to draw a line on not tolerating personal attacks, threats of violence, aggression towards council staff, or behaviour that displaced or threatened the safety of those using council facilities or attending events.
“What I’ve heard from staff members, it was extremely terrifying and pretty horrible,” RNZ reported.
“Members of the rainbow community also are fairly used to abuse, but that type of behaviour was well above anything most have experienced ever before,” Hills said.
The protest by Destiny Church groups at Te Atatū Community Centre turned violent on Saturday.
The mother said she was excited to take her children, 2 and 5, as she had a background in science and thought it would be a fun and entertaining event. She also believed it would be good to give her children experiences with diverse people.
When she arrived, she was saddened to see the protesters with placards outside the building.
“My heart just felt a bit sad that they would be trying to go off about their discrimination. I felt quite bad for anybody around the rainbow community who could see the message that the Man Up movement was saying, that they don’t tolerate them.
“I’m upset that they are making trans people feel unwelcome, which I think is just really off.”
Destiny Church's Brian Tamaki (inset) says he instructed a group leader to storm the library.
During the show, she was sitting at the front of the audience and was not immediately aware of what was going on outside the room.
“I was naively under the impression that they were just trying to disrupt things and be rude and disrespectful. I wasn’t aware they were trying to actually get in,” she said.
She said event organisers and staff at the community centre walked the families back to their cars when it was over.
She said her children were fine now. “I guess I’m just very disillusioned.”
