(LifeSiteNews) — Kirralie Smith, an Australian women’s rights advocate, has been ordered by a New South Wales court to pay $95,000 AUD (over $63,000 USD) to two trans-identifying men for the crime of “unlawfully vilifying” them by correctly referring to them as male.
As LifeSiteNews reported in September, Smith — the spokeswoman for the organization Binary Australia — was convicted of highlighting the fact that two men were competing in women’s soccer, stating that she “sought to evoke fear in the reader regarding the fact that (Nicholas “Stephanie”) Blanch, who is described as a man/male/bloke, is playing on a women’s team. The other plaintiff was player Justin “Riley” Dennis.
The two men also demanded an apology and stated that Binary Australia had to “develop a policy aimed at eliminating unlawful discrimination and transgender vilification in relation to any future public acts,” which would essentially halt the organization’s women’s rights activism by muzzling their ability to speak clearly about the issue of trans-identifying males in women’s spaces.
Magistrate Sharon Freund ordered Smith to pay $55,000 to Blanch and $40,000 to Dennis, with an additional $40,000 penalty if she refuses. In a contradictory ruling, Freund also demanded Smith “publish a public statement of apology” that must be pinned to the top of all of her social media pages, but simultaneously to “refrain from publishing anything that identifies the plaintiff or their football team.”
“My penalty for being guilty of ‘unlawful vilification’ has been handed down,” Smith wrote December 4 on X. “In summary, $95,000 in fines which will double if I don’t pay in 28 days. The orders also state I need to issue a public apology. I will be appealing the decision. Your support, your voice and your action is invaluable to me. Thank you!”
“It is disappointing that the word ‘woman’ has been redefined to include males and that the words ‘violence’ & ‘vilification have been applied to speaking the truth about information in the public domain,” she continued. “Australians should be very concerned about their freedoms. Women have effectively been erased from law and attempts to advocate regarding public policy are shut down for the sake of the feelings of a few. Males should never be permitted to participate in female sport.”
Smith’s “crime” was “misgendering” the two men in a January 2023 post on X in which she referred to “a bloke playing on the women’s team in Wingham,” and a January 2023 article for Binary in which she referred to Blanch as male. As she wrote in her article:
The bloke in the frock can play either in the men’s competition or a mixed competition, there is absolutely no need for him to play in a women’s division. No one is saying he can’t play. It is simply a manner of fairness, safety, and dignity. He is male and does not belong in a female division. Women and girls deserve to have the option of a female-only competition.
As Genevieve Gluck reported at Reduxx, the ruling included “an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) filed against Smith … resulting in Smith being ordered to pay his court costs in that matter. An AVO is similar to the American equivalent of a restraining order and sets conditions against an individual for the ‘protection of another.’” Blanch’s initial request for an AVO was rejected last year but was granted on appeal after he claimed that Smith had made him “fear for his safety.”
Smith’s crimes against Denis were social media posts she made in March 2023 in which she stated that she had “cried a lot” because “two female soccer players were hospitalized over the weekend after being forced to play against a male appropriating womanhood … Football Australia have received more than 2,000 complaints about the men in teams such as Wingham FC and some Sydney first grade teams.”
LSN previously reported that “Football NSW introduced a ‘Gender Diversity Policy’ in 2023, allowing gender-confused individuals to choose a team that ‘best suits the player’s gender identity.’ In a match on May 21 that year, Dennis injured a female player after launching her toward a metal fence with an aggressive tackle while both were chasing the ball.” According to Reduxx, the Flying Bats have at least five males on the team, “some of whom have been accused of injuring female players.”
“As a registered third-party political campaigner and a woman, I should have the right to advocate for this without being penalized,” Smith stated on X in response to the ruling. “This decision, along with the High Court Appeal for the apprehension of violence order being denied, sets a precedent that all journalists, politicians and political advocates must take note of. The law might state men can be women, but it defies the laws of nature and cannot be sustained.”
“Nothing will steal my joy in knowing that I am a woman and no male ever will be. I am proud to stand for truth and reality.”
