Katherine Deves (pictured on Friday) believes trans children and teenagers are being sterilised
Would-be Liberal MP Katherine Deves fired off hundreds of tweets in her campaign against transgender athletes in female sports – praising J.K Rowling, attacking the mayor of Sydney, and deploring trans teens and kids being ‘sterilised’.
The 44-year-old lawyer, from Manly Vale on Sydney’s northern beaches, was personally selected by Scott Morrison to run in the vital marginal seat of Warringah against independent MP Zali Steggall.
Her campaign against transgender athletes in female sports was very public, but since her candidacy was announced more information was dug up about her strong views on the transgender issue – not just as it relates to sport.
She made unfounded claims that half the men who transition are sex offenders, compared her Protect Women’s Sport movement to standing up against the Holocaust, and said many trans kids and teens are on the autism spectrum.
But while some of her claims and language angered those in the transgender lobby, it paled in comparison to some of the backlash she received from members of the public – including threats of rape and death.
One particularly vile message obtained by Daily Mail Australia read: ‘If you ever comment transphobic s**t on my feed again I’ll burn you and stick my girl c**k down your neck.’
The troll also called her a ‘c**t’, a ‘witch’ and a ‘TERF’ – an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist, which is used to describe feminists who reject the assertion that trans women are real women.
Ms Deves responded by deleting her Twitter account – which was awash with musings, links and retweets that not only reiterated her views about transgender athletes, but regularly showed her opinions about women’s rights in general.
Daily Mail Australia can reveal the full archive of the politician’s tweets including several offensive messages – which indicate just how prominent the transgender issue was in her mind.
However, why she is so taken with the issue remains elusive, with Ms Deves refusing to discuss her stance when repeatedly approached by Daily Mail Australia on Friday.
Ms Deves refused to discuss her controversial Twitter history with Daily Mail Australia on Friday when she arrived at the Australian Electoral Commission office in Frenchs Forest on Friday for the Warringah ballot draw
Katherine Deves (pictured with her family) has vowed she’s ‘not going anywhere’, despite growing calls within the Liberal party for her to be disendorsed
Pictured: Katherine Deves’ Twitter profile, before she deleted it. According to her bio, she’s a ‘gatekeeper of little girls’
According to one of her tweets from last year, Ms Deves’ partner David Morgan, who owns a tree lopping business on the Northern Beaches with his younger brother, shares some of her views.
‘I am proud to say my partner is now officially a man-TERF after receiving his first three-day Facebook suspension for standing up for the rights of women and girls in sport,’ she wrote.
Mr Morgan refused to comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia.
Despite stating her partner is a ‘man-TERF’, Ms Deves said weeks earlier that she was offended by the term.
‘T*rf is a hateful, bigoted and derogatory term used against women who stand up for sex-based rights and is usually accompanied by threats of violence,’ she wrote.
The Liberal candidate also wished Harry Potter author J.K Rowling a happy birthday on Twitter last year, and referred to her as a ‘terven queen’.
Ms Rowling has also been called a TERF for her views about transgender women.
Ms Deves also wished Harry Potter author J.K Rowling a happy birthday. Ms Rowling has also been labelled a TERF
Katherine Deves said the acronym TERF is ‘hateful and derogatory’ in a post on Twitter (pictured)
She then affectionately called her partner David a man-TERF for getting banned from Facebook for three days (pictured)
On her now-deleted Twitter account, Ms Deves repeatedly aired her views on women’s rights
At one stage, Ms Deves likened her Save Women’s Sport movement to those who ignored signs of the presence of German death camps during WWII
Ms Deves also attacked the City of Sydney and mayor Clover Moore over her decision to host World Pride in 2023
She also accused trans-activists of having ‘tactics and strategies’ that she would ‘shine a light on’
Ms Deves continued on the Warringah campaign trail on Friday, speaking to members of the public at a bus depot on Friday morning
Ms Deves also attacked Clover Moore, the mayor of Sydney, for pledging $500,000 to host World Pride in 2023 – an annual international LGBTQI+ celebration – while not supporting what she considered more important feminist causes.
‘City of Sydney and Clover Moore clearly prioritise trans and gender diverse over women, providing $500K of Sydney taxpayer funds to World Pride at the same meeting they chose to evict Anna Kerr’s legal service for profoundly disadvantaged women – a blatant act of sex discrimination,’ she wrote.
Anna Kerr is the principal solicitor at Feminist Legal Clinic, which is a group that provides legal advice for female victims of domestic violence which was given an office to use by the City of Sydney – rent-free.
The free lease was terminated when the clinic refused orders to remove material from its website that had been complained about by the trans lobby.
The North Shore mum stated in those tweets that ‘we are in agreement that no-one should be discriminated against on the basis of their gender identity’.
She previously said she has family members who are gay, but in September she described the prospect of two gay men having a baby as a ‘vanity project.’
‘Surrogacy is a human rights violation,’ she tweeted. ‘Women’s bodies are not vehicles for a vanity project.’
Ms Deves was referring to Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay U.S. presidential candidate, and his husband who are joint fathers of twin girls.
Ms Deves wrote several tweets about the invasive physical changes required for trans children to complete a transition
Ms Deves follows a group called N=8. According to the website, the International Olympic Committee studied eight men to determine whether muscle mass decreased when undergoing hormone suppression therapy
Ms Deves strongly believes that transgender women should be banned from competing against biological women
This is the tweet in which Ms Deves made her controversial comments about transgender teenagers. She shared a picture of a trans American teenager who had just had breasts removed and wrote: ‘This photo just hit my feed. It is beyond heartbreaking’
Pictured above: A tweet by a US politician who was celebrating the birth of his twin girls via surrogacy. Below: Ms Deves telling him that ‘surrogacy is a human rights violation’
In September 2021, Ms Deves criticised a decision by a Western Australia court to dismiss an appeal by parents whose transgender child was put into foster care
In April 2021, Ms Deves tweeted about an overseas trial where a Canadian father was taken to court for not supporting his teenager transitioning
She also linked cross-dressing to sexual violence and serial killers.
‘Transvestism is very common amongst sexual predators, even serial killers,’ she wrote.
‘So how are we women supposed to tell the difference between the ones who are a threat and the ones who aren’t?
‘Easier for women to exclude all males from spaces where we are vulnerable.’
In another tweet, Ms Deves said ‘transablism’ – where people pretend to be disabled – is ‘a thing’ and likened people in that category to a well-known serial killer.
‘Didn’t Ted Bundy pretend to be injured to garner sympathy?’ she asked.
In tweets that resurfaced just after the Prime Minister endorsed her for the seat of Warringah, Ms Deves said transgender children who underwent sex reassignment surgery were ‘surgically mutilated and sterilised’.
She shared a picture of a trans American teenager in November who had just had breasts removed and wrote: ‘This photo just hit my feed. It is beyond heartbreaking.’
In a second tweet she added: ‘They will not stand for seeing vulnerable children surgically mutilated and sterilised in futherance of an unattainable idea.
‘The lawsuits will be legion, as will the government inquiries. Complete failure of safeguarding. Mark my words.’
The original image had been shared on social media by a parent of the teenager who underwent the breast removal.
The caption read: ‘So we are on day 10 post op, keyhole. Just got home from my son getting his drains out. Wow, he went from misery of post op to YAY! NO TITTIES!!! Anyway, he 100% gave permission to share this pic’.
Ms Deves (pictured centre, in a blue dress, stands with supporters in the Warringah electorate
She also appeared alongside British television writer and anti-trans activist Graham Linehan last year, and compared her Save Women’s Sport movement to those Germans who took great personal risk to point out the reality of concentration camps while others ignored them and to the French Resistance which challenged the occupation of their country during WWII.
‘I’ve always loved 20th-century history and I think many people would say to themselves, ‘I’d never been to villages that stayed quiet, while the trains went past or whatever, I would have been part of the French Resistance, the underground, you know, I would be one of those people’,’ she said in the video.
‘And when all of this was happening, and no one was sort of speaking out, I thought, this is it. This is the moment in my life, where I’m going to have to stand up and say something against the status quo and against the establishment and say, ‘I don’t think this is right’.
‘And it might come at a cost to me, but I have to say it.’
Ms Deves (pictured) has apologised for the wording used in the tweets, but many have called for her to be disendorsed
Ms Deves in September 2021 criticised a decision by a Western Australia court to dismiss an appeal by parents whose transgender child was put into foster care.
‘Australia has a very dark history of children being taken from their families by the state (because) bureaucrats thought they knew better,’ she wrote.
‘Don’t we owe it to lessons of the past, such as our shameful Stolen Generation scandal, to stop the destruction of families for flawed beliefs?’
Ms Deves apologised for the wording of the tweets last week, saying: ‘My advocacy for the rights and safety of women and girls is well known, and I stand by my desire to ensure we protect the safety of women and girls and our entire community.
‘However, the language I used was not acceptable, and for that I apologise.
‘My commitment is to continue listening to the views of people in Warringah, and the broader community – I will do this in a respectful way.’
Her apology cut little ice with her ideological opponents on Twitter.
One Twitter user tagged Ms Deves and wrote: ‘Ask your doctor if dying in fire is right for you.’
When someone stood up for the Liberal candidate, the user added: ‘I have no qualms helping to set bigots on fire … it is akin to killing vermin.’
One Twitter user said ‘helping to set bigots on fire’ is ‘akin to killing vermin’ (comment pictured)
Others lashed out at Ms Deves, but managed not to threaten her personal safety (pictured)
While many slammed the Liberal candidate as a ‘bigot’, most managed to disagree with her without threatening her personal safety.
One person said: ‘Breaking: It’s not bullying if you’re a bigot attacking a minority group. You’re just a bad person.’
Another wrote: ‘The evil of the Katherine Deves issue – so intentional and wicked.’
Someone else said bullying and death threats are ‘not warranted’, but told Ms Deves that it might give her ‘an idea of what transgenders go through’.
‘Katherine Deves claims she is being bullied. Seriously. Your comments about marginalised LGBTIQ+ are way beyond bullying,’ another wrote.
‘You’re being held to account for your heinous comments, is not bullying. You are not a representative of my community in Warringah.’
In the email to supporters on Monday, Ms Deves said: ‘My opponents, parts of the left media and Twittersphere have been unrelenting in calling for me to be disendorsed, because of past statements.’
‘I have been bullied in the most vile way and received death threats. I’m not going anywhere, as the Prime Minister said yesterday.’
The storm around Ms Deves’ tweets had prompted even some people within the NSW Liberal Party to call for her to be disendorsed as a candidate.
While people from the left of the state party such as Matt Kean and Trent Zimmerman opposed her candidacy, she had received backing from the conservative wing including former Prime Ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott.
The irony of that is that Ms Deves, prior to this controversy, was considered very much on the party’s moderate wing.
Earlier this week, Mr Morrison stood by his ‘captain’s pick’ and said Ms Deves would make a ‘great member of parliament’.
Ms Deves’ name was drawn as fifth candidate on the ballot card on Friday. She is pictured leaving the Australian Electoral Commission office after the ballot draw
‘She is standing up for women and girls and their access to fair sport in this country,’ Mr Morrison said.
‘She has learned in her advocacy in her private life there are better ways to do things to take things forward as a Member of Parliament.
‘I believe that is how she will approach the task if she is elected as the member for Warringah, and I don’t think she should be silenced.’
However, he has since been urged to reconsider the endorsement.
Ms Deves will continue to run as a candidate after her name was drawn as fifth on the ballot card on Friday.
Arriving at the Australina Electoral Commission office at Frenchs Forest, Ms Deves declined to answer any questions but made a brief statement to reporters.
‘I’m very pleased to be here today and I’m looking forward to campaigning hard over the next four weeks on the issues that matter to the people of Warringah,’ Ms Deves said.
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